Let Go: Leaving Behind What We Don’t Need
Exodus 16:1-8
I love Costco. There are tons of reasons that I shop there on occasion, and it remains one of the best choices out there if you are concerned about food fraud and good sourcing of food. Costco also is well known for paying their employees well and the $1.50 hotdog and drink combo makes my heart sing.
Costco is where you can buy the 5 gallon buckets of mayo and the 50 pound bag of rice. I get paper products like toilet paper and paper towels from Costco. I get my pants and socks from Costco. When shopping there, the temptation to stock up on massive amounts of food is incredibly tempting. I love having a stockpile of food. But I have to stop myself and remember the word "enough." For the longest time, I have been buying groceries for two. And often times the quantities one finds at costco can be a bit excessive.
Whenever I read the story of God providing manna and quail to the Israelites during their wilderness wandering I always think of how strange walking into places like Costco can be. Or, for that matter, even typical grocery stores.
We are surrounded by abundance. And sometimes it even seems like excess.
Have you ever stopped in a grocery store, looked around when sitting in an aisle surrounded by the utter variety and amount of food and wondered just how strange it is? Or how strange it might seem to folks who barely eke out their nutritional needs with subsistence living?
The word “enough” resonates with me in how it shows up in the story of God's provision to the Isrealites in the wilderness. When God promises them manna, he makes clear that only what the need is what will be provided. They wont be allowed to keep any of it for later (it rots when they try to keep it), and they are all alotted a set amount.
The isrealites are not instructed to be thrifty and save, save, save. And they are also not instructed to gorge themselves to excess. They have to trust each day that God will provide what they need, that God has given them enough to eat each day.
I dont know if that would jive in our consumeristic capitalist economy! When we go to Costco and buy our 12 pack of sticks of butter, either we own a restaurant and that is just the right amount, or we are buying groceries in bulk to stock in our fridge to use day after day.
Sometimes it can feel risky to "trust God." "Trusting God" has sometimes been a teaching from the church that has led to spiritual trauma and abuse. "Trusting God" is so often a cliche we use to comfort people when we don't know what else to say as they struggle with grief and difficult. "Trusting God" can sometimes lead to the corrupt theology of the "prosperity gospel" which preys on the poor by encouraging them to give more than they should to the church in order to reap a divine reward from God.
But I want to encourage you to consider trusting God anyway. Trust God that you are where you are supposed to be in this given moment in time. Trust God that you have what you need to live into the call God has placed on your life. Trust God that even the worst that is happening is not forever, nor is your experience of it futile.
And, most importantly, trust that God loves you.
It says in scripture that God tested the Isrealites, but I don't think the test was only in the experience of eating just enough manna and quail or following specific instructions. I think God's test for the Isrealites was for them to live as if they believed God was with them, was watching over them, and that, even in the hardest times of their wilderness wandering, they were not alone.
