It is all about attitude. It really is. One attitude that seems way too predominant is a mentality of scarcity. Those viewing life in this way see it as limited and constrained. For them the challenge is to get and keep their “share.” It is as if someone else were to get too large a piece of the pie, everyone else (but especially them!) would get less. Filled with this attitude, a zero-sum paradigm of life, people focus on not losing what has been gained. So they have a very difficult time sharing – sharing time, resources, power, or even recognition with others. Nearly every transaction and interaction becomes a potential threat. The metaphor for these people is a fist, tightly closed around all that is valuable.

Those at the other end of the spectrum have a mentality of abundance. This attitude flows out of a paradigm that there is plenty out there. These people have a deep inner sense of being blessed and loved and cared for. This attitude results in abundant sharing – sharing of all that flows first to them, and then through them to others. The metaphor for these people is open hands, palms up into which gifts first flow and then overflow. Perhaps on a practical level, the challenge is to view life from God as providing enough to share abundantly.

This is what I hear in the words of Apostle Paul as he writes to his beloved church in Corinth “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.”

It is my prayer this will be our attitude, especially this Sunday at Church of the Palms. Sunday is Consecration Sunday when, as part of our worship, everyone will be invited forward to offer their 2012 commitments of prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness to God and God's church. This response will follow the proclamation for the day “Enough To Share Abundantly” based on 2 Corinthians 9:1-10.