Enough. It is a word that gets very little attention these days. Knowing that one has enough, however, is liberating. John C. Bogle was the late founder and CEO of The Vanguard Group, one of the largest mutual fund companies in the world, and he created the Vanguard 500 index fund. Bogle tells the story of Joseph Heller, the 1940s author of Catch-22, a WWII novel, which was one of the great literary works of last century, who responded when someone pointed out that his billionaire party host made more money in a single day of hedge fund trading than Heller had ever earned from his book Catch-22. Heller replied: “Yes, but I have something that he will never have: Enough.”
To know that one has enough allows others to have the same possibility. When one can say to oneself, “I have enough,” the noisy, grinding gears of endless acquisition come to a halt, and we’re drawn deeper into life with all its wonder and pain and beauty.
We have a lot of choices in our lives. There are many options for us to take given by our abundant society—even as we right now feel there are shortages all around us… in our pocket books, trying to keep ourselves and our family healthy, and provide our children with what we had when we were their age. Yet, there is still abundance in our midst. I walk across the room at home and pass two television sets and three computers in the process. I know I am not the only one who experiences this, but rather takes this far granted. I take several bags of clothing to Goodwill and other charitable places each year. It follows from what a former Lutheran bishop told me he did with his family the last week of every year. At year’s end, they culled the clothes and the books and the kitchen items they had not touched in many years, and gave them away. It is a good practice. A kind of “holy shedding” of things not needed. It is an act that states that reveals that we have more than “enough” right now.
The rich man in Mark 10:17-22 questioned Jesus on what he must do to inherit eternal life. In his response, Jesus pointed the rich man rather to having treasure in heaven. Jesus replied, “follow the commandments” to which the rich man said he had. And then Jesus said, “Go, sell what you own, give the money to the poor, and then you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me.” The rich man was shocked at what Jesus said at the end, so much so that he walked away grieving.
It is important here to remember that Jesus loved the rich man. Jesus knew what would bring true contentment and peace to this man’s heart, so it was not a harsh response by Jesus to the rich man at all. Yet ill-found perspectives of what is “enough” don’t always take good news as good, as the rich man was worried over his many possessions.
There will always be a wideness between our notions of what “right living” is for us and what God’s will is for our right living. This is why, for Christians, the flow of God’s activity is a kind of “down and out” activity:
God’s will for right living flows down upon believers who, inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, live out such right living through our various actions that benefit our neighbor.
When we know that our faith and trust in God is in and of itself “enough,” we make room and provide relief for those who are lacking basic necessities. If the rich man from Mark 10 had remembered Psalm 146, the outcome may have been different from him. Psalm 146:7-8 suggests that we’ll be moved to joy, moved to praise when we trust God above our wealth and possessions:
“The Lord lets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous.”
We will be like freed prisoners from what binds us, which includes unnecessary wealth. God will give us things, but God holds out something more to the faithful—the peace of knowing that we have enough. That knowledge makes us partners in God’s work in the world. Without the good, quieting power of “enough,” the notion that God will provide is superficially optimistic and impractical. It can even be dangerous and devastating, as national financial debacles have shown us.
It is tempting to interpret these Biblical texts from Mark 10 and Psalm 146 to mean that God wants endless gain for us and that we do not need to consider the destructive consequences of endless acquisition nor take responsibility for our own financial circumstances or debts. It is easy to interpret these Biblical texts in these ways, but such interpretation requires suspending any sense of personal responsibility. It is also a perverse distortion of “God’s care.”
I’m still working on my faith, as I am sure you are too. It is a never-ending process until we take our last breath in this life. Faith development for all of us is a work in progress—especially when it comes to money. Faith is knowing that God provides all that we need. And every now and then we can taste—you and I—the glimmer of joy, clarity, and contented generosity that is God’s gift of “enough.”
