Life Without Lack
Among other things, quarantine has given me ample time to read. Recently, I’ve been re-reading the book called Life Without Lack (LWL) by Dallas Willard. He also authored the best-selling book titled The Divine Conspiracy which I have not read, yet, but I have started.
LWL was given to me as a gift from my friend, Jamie, who serves as the President of the West Michigan branch of the National Christian Foundation. He sent it to me after a conversation we had about money and the anxieties that money, or lack thereof, causes us. Our conversation was also about generosity and how to cultivate it. This book was transformational in Jamie’s life. I read the book a few months before COVID-19 hit and I find myself processing it again in a new light. It contains a wonderful message for uncertain times, whether a global pandemic or just the uncertainties that life throws us in general. When I read a physical book I like to highlight meaningful passages, and honestly, I don’t recall highlighting a book as much as I did this one.
LWL is centered around the well-known Psalm 23:
The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.
The book’s introduction starts with a quote from the famous English preacher Charles Spurgeon.
We have all things and abound; not because I have a good store of money in the bank, not because I have skill with which to win my bread, but because the Lord is my shepherd.
The powerful message in Willard’s writing is that we can rest in God regardless of our circumstances. It’s compelling and one that we desperately need – both in good and bad times. This message transcends all seasons -- those of lack or plenty, pain or pleasure, failure or success.
Willard is not shy in calling out the inconsistencies of how we typically live. We live to save, enhance, and enrich our lives and in doing so lose the most important things in life; an intimate relationship with God and others. This is especially difficult to avoid in our modern culture which celebrates and rewards success, advancement, power, and security above all else. I began to realize just how much I operate in the America operating system. A system built on pursuit -- pursuit of home, car, investments, notoriety. Sadly, once we have acquired them, we continue the pursuit, determined to have a better home, a better car, more investments, greater fame. This pursuit is literally never satisfied and only leaves us sick and tired, both physically and spiritually.
In LWL I see a parallel to the minimalist movement. This movement hinges on the realization that stuff only masquerades as the solution for the void in our lives. In actuality, accumulation diminishes our happiness which, ironically, drives us to seek more in hopes of abating our appetite.
I now see this relentless rush for “more” as an addiction and, like any other addition, it must be broken through intervention. Willard uses Psalm 23 as the road map to recovery, and at the end of the rainbow there is not necessarily a pot of gold, but something infinitely better – the creator of all things. Resting in relationship with him is finding the place and peace of living without a sense of lack. Put another way, when you find the source of all, you can relinquish your pursuits, because all things are found in him and his satisfaction transcends the material. This is what it means to be truly content.
Life without lack is not living “without” something, rather it’s living with Christ. This book helped me to begin to shift my perspective away from things and toward the maker of all things -- a lifelong pursuit that requires an all-in effort.