Joy, scarcity and abundance

Are all tied together.

[See what it looks like plotted on a graph.]

If you live in scarcity, it can be difficult to experience joy when your sole focus is on survival. I am talking about extreme levels of poverty. The kind of poverty where if you dropped a carton of eggs someone at home goes hungry.

There are more than 3 billion people today, living on less than $3 a day.

Yet, there are more people that have their needs taken care of than ever before. If you are reading this, you live in one of the safest countries in the world and have access to healthcare, sanitation, education, transportation. Many of us have opportunities to recreate. We can worship freely, speak up and we have a right to assemble. We also have access to information and the internet and connection. Our literacy rate is higher than ever before.

This is the best time to be alive in human history.

So why are we seeing levels of joy decrease in a world that is increasing in abundance?

It turns out the endless treadmill of accumulation, we are finding out, is actually endless. There are studies that have shown your level of happiness can begin to decrease at $75,000 per year.

But I think the thing we are missing the most is desire.

A desire to be needed and to discover. A desire to make a difference in someone’s world. A desire to fulfill our purpose—the things that God wants us to be so we can become.

Before choices comes a desire.

If you’re lacking a desire this Thanksgiving, start with The Three G’s.

Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for reading. I hope it has made an impact.