A Devotion for More

As of this June, we will have lived in our home in Tampa for 2 years. In the scheme of things, it’s not a long time. But that’s 2 years that we’ve spent painting, buying and adjusting furniture, hanging pictures and artwork, and just generally settling into the space. It looks a whole lot different than it did when we walked through the doors with the new keys in our hands in 2016.

It doesn’t look like just a house anymore; it feels like a home.

Even though I LOVE our home for its charm and its character (and for the fact that it survived Irma with no damage!) that doesn’t stop me from watching renovation and real estate shows on HGTV, or from looking at the real estate listings in our neighborhood and dreaming of a larger home, or one with a pool or a 4th bedroom.

Even though my home is wonderful and fits all our family’s needs, there’s something within me that gets caught up in the “what ifs” and honestly, in the comparison game.

I don’t think I’m alone in this; we live in a “keeping up with the Jones’“ world – whether it’s clothes, homes, cars, smart phones, or vacations – the pull of “having it all” is a strong one.

This desire for more, more, more is not just a physical or monetary problem, it’s a spiritual one as well. But perhaps not in the way you would think.

I do think that God wants us to desire more, to ask for more, to seek for more – just not the things the world tells us to.

In his book, The Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis writes:

“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Our desires for a bigger home, or a fancier car, or an exotic vacation – they are not wrong because they are desires. They are simply misplaced. They are pointed in a direction that will not fulfill.

What we need, and what our hearts ultimately long for – is more of God, and more of the things that God’s Kingdom is made of: love, mercy, justice, grace, and so on.

When we do the work of disaster recovery, we get a chance to tell a different story than the story of “more, more, more,” that the world tells us we should want.

But we are also challenged to ask, are our desires too weak? Have we not been dreaming with God enough? Have we been too easily pleased?

So, this week, I want you to consider: what might God be asking you to want more of? Are you praying for, asking for, working for the things that the world offers, or that God offers?

In the meantime, I will join you in looking away from the HGTV tinted dreams, and focus on dreaming with God about what MORE could look like in my own life and in the life of Disaster Recovery Ministry.

Grace and peace,

Chaplain Amy