Pastor Jeremy Stephens

Today was an incredibly long day.

I started the morning with Tim from blackcoffeereflections.com. We got some breakfast at the hotel and hit the streets of ho chi minh city shortly after 7am. We wandered toward the massive market (by way of a coffee shop of course) to peruse the knock-offs. I was hoping to retire the backpack i’ve had since middleschool with one of the many North Face bags they have all over the place. After a little negotiating I picked up a really nice one for something exhorbitant like 10 bucks. Afterwards I found a watch stand (I’m a real sucker for sweet watches….I have a bunch). I negotiated pretty well there and walked away with a watch I’m really excited about for a very good price. We walked around a bit more but grew tired of the incredibly pushy salespeople and left, satisfied with our take.

Upon returning to the hotel we compares our spoils with others in the group. One guy showed us a purse he bought for his wife. We asked how much it was and he explained that the price tag said 195.000 but he just paid 200.000.

I thoght: doesn’t he know he’s supposed to negotiate?

Well? Or was he living with a mindset of abundance?

In the afternoon we drove the five hours across the Mekong Delta to the university we’ll be working with. As we rode through the fascinating, yet impoverished countryside, Steve, the group leader, asked me what I thought the pastoral implications of our trip so far were. After thinking about it for a bit I said that I would love it if the church could grasp the fact that while money is tight, we can still live with a posture of abundance rather than scarcity.

My friend who bought the purse thought the craftsmanship was beautiful and he had the money, so why not just bless the seller. My friend is nowhere near wealthy, but he understood that he could bless someone. What if we operated that way everywhere? What if we realized that, while we don’t have a large amount in the bank account, we can still provide powerful blessing in the lives of others if we choose to believe we are abundantly blessed? What message would that convey to the world watching us?