Learning About Economy from Nature
I read this today:
Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
But don’t forget to be doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
(Hebrews 13:5-6,16)
This is in line with what I’ve been thinking on lately, i.e., the love of money being a root of all kinds of evil. And if we look at society that is so apparent, and our economy is built on it. Marketing is built on it. (Something I’ve struggled with over the years of being involved in marketing and advertising – it is not based on honesty.)
In fact, I’ve been looking into it lately and learned that our market economy promotes scarcity in order to regulate markets with supply and demand. Because people want stuff, the market creates a scarcity of those items, which makes people want them more and they jump in quickly to buy as much as they can while the price is right. Hence we have people who hoard and and people who have nothing.
Really it is an economy of want, greed and covetousness.
But there is another way. Just look at nature!
We see there an economy of abundance, giving and generosity. In the forest, the fruit tree will freely produce its fruit which is abundantly available for the birds to eat, and who in turn fly away and spread the seeds through their droppings. Then more trees grow and they flower and the bees pollinate the flowers to produce more fruit. And so the cycle goes on.
So why not take the lessons from nature, and develop a GIVING CYCLE – a Giving Economy? With a grateful heart, focus on the abundance we have to share, and freely receive what others have to give, so that we in turn can give back to others.
I really think this is how we are meant to be.
Be blessed and be a blessing!!
More Wisdom from the Good Book
“Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consume, and where thieves don’t break through and steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can’t serve both God and Mammon.”
(Matthew 6:19-24)
But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now at length you have revived your thought for me; in which you did indeed take thought, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak because of lack, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content in it. I know how to be humbled, and I know also how to abound.
In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need. I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.
(Philippians 4:10-13)
If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions, constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out. But having food and clothing, we will be content with that.
But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(1 Timothy 6:3-10)
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be for a testimony against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies. You have lived in luxury on the earth, and taken your pleasure. You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He doesn’t resist you.
(James 5:1-6)
By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him?
My little children, let’s not love in word only, or with the tongue only, but in deed and truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and persuade our hearts before him, because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
(1 John 3:16-20)
Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good toward all men, and especially toward those who are of the household of the faith.
(Galatians 6:7-10)