Suzi Pitts, Director of Communications

Proverbs 15:16-17
Better a little with the fear of the Lord
    than great wealth with turmoil.
Better a small serving of vegetables with love
    than a fattened calf with hatred.

Reflection:
Here we are on the last day of our Daily Habit focused on Proverbs and the eve of starting our Lenten journey. If the weather forecasters are accurate, it’s freezing cold and just might be snowing here in Houston. There are no words.

I want to tell you a house story. It was back in the ‘80s in Greenwich, CT (where winters with snow and ice are supposed to happen) and the house was ours. It was a 100-year-old Victorian, with five fireplaces and around 10,000 square feet. We were living large and loving it. One day, someone was delivering something to the house, and there were a bunch of cars in the driveway. The gardeners were in the back, the nanny and the baby were playing on the veranda. The guy said to my husband, “You have quite a payroll around here.” That was funny and true. Then Black Friday hit and Wall Street changed dramatically. We went from owning the house to the house owning us. Stress and anxiety about how we would afford this lifestyle replaced the enjoyment it used to bring. I always thought that I’d see my Kindergarten-aged daughter walk down those stairs one day in her wedding dress. But, it was time to let it go and we put it on the market in the Spring. No house is worth sleepless nights.

The couplet I have chosen from Proverbs 15 speaks to over-abundance.

Better a little with the fear of the Lord
    than great wealth with turmoil.
Better a small serving of vegetables with love
    than a fattened calf with hatred.

These two “better than“ verses remind us that abundance is not everything if it is accompanied by strife, anxiety, and conflict. Maybe more is not better.

I love the movie Regarding Henry. Harrison Ford plays an unscrupulous corporate lawyer (and husband) who is shot during a robbery and sustains a personality-changing brain injury. Before the shooting, he was, frankly, a jerk. After he loses his job, the family must move from their fancy Fifth Avenue apartment and let the housekeeper, Zelda, go. Before the injury, he was stressed out and had never been kind. But when he told Zelda the news, he hugged her. She replied. “That’s OK, Mr. Henry. I like you better this way.” While his brain never healed, his heart was more whole than it had ever been.

So are we better with less? Is it easier to keep our eyes on God when we are not focused on the fear of losing it all? Isn’t it better to live more nimbly so that we can respond to the Spirit’s leading? Can we better live for the glory of the Lord when we are not anxiously scanning the horizon for more? 

Prayer
Father God,
Thank you that you are better than all of the shiny things that get our attention and hold us captive. Make the desire of our hearts to really believe that “Better is one day in your house than thousands elsewhere.” Make it true, dear Lord. Keep our eyes on you. Amen.