The concept of abundance has popped up several times in the past week. First, while reading through The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, one of the chapters was about regaining abundance in your creative endeavors. A day or two after that, my wife was talking to me about the difference between abundance and excess (thus, this blog entry). Then, at our Wednesday night Bible study, abundance showed up once again in the chapter we were studying. In The Artist’s Way, this is what Cameron describes as synchronicity. It’s interesting to look at the idea of abundance in comparison with excess.

First, a look at connotations. While both of these words are define the same way, they have different emotional connections to them. Both words means to have a lot of something. However, the difference in the two is the connotations placed on them. Excess has a bit of a negative connotation and connects to the idea of being wasteful. If you have an excessive amount of something, you usually get rid of the excess. Abundance, on the other hand, has a more positive connotation to it. Abundance is life-giving and leaves us wanting more in a good way. If you have abundant joy, you’re bursting at the seams with joy and continuing to fill up even more.

The Bible is very clear that God wants us to have abundant life, but what does that mean? It means that He wants us to live life full of purpose. It means that He wants us to be good stewards of what He has given us. It’s just like the parable of the talents. The master gives three different servants different amounts. The reason the master is mad at one of the servants is because he didn’t make good use of it. What he was given became excess instead of abundance. The servant wasted what he had.

We often have this notion that if we have a lot of something, then we are in the wrong. We try to get rid of it or downsize it in some way. This is excess. We need to live in abundance. If we have a lot, we need to make good use of it. If we have a lot of money, we don’t need to waste it. We need to put it to good use. Make good use of the time, energy, creativity, laughter, athletic abilities, whatever it is we have.

When we’re given something in life, we have two choices. We can make good use of it and use it for God’s purposes or we can let it atrophy and become wasteful. Don’t waste what’s been given to you. Use it, and use it well.