Holidailies Day 18: Abundance

When I think of the word abundance, I must admit my first thought is of that Impossible Quiz on the internet that I used to play obsessively when I wanted to waste time in college. It was one of the questions, where they had this cupcake like cartoon jumping up and it asked, "What is this?" The answer of course was, "a-bun-dance!"

Aside from old internet remembrances, abundance is not something that I've thought to have experienced too often in my life. At least not recently, when groceries consist of bread and hopefully some form of protein, and small amounts of fresh fruit if I want to be especially healthy. But God has been finally getting through to me that He is more than able to provide all that I need, and then exceedingly, abundantly more, if I just trust Him to take care of it.

The last couple of days have been interesting. Over the weekend, I determined that after the dismal week I had last week that I was done with feeling crappy and I decided to start the week off with a better attitude. It included getting up before 11 (always a good plan), being especially productive on Monday, having a hard day on Tuesday but still getting things taken care of and then a great day today which included baking and good food and the first creative breakthrough in writing since NaNo (thanks to my wonderful friend who found the answer to the question I've been asking myself for weeks now, in like 15 minutes).

It wasn't just days going better, even in the face of the hard news and minor emotional breakdown yesterday (though I did get a nap, so that was helpful on that front). It was blessing, and not just a little, but a ton of blessing. I go to the School of Leadership at my church, and the community there is my favorite. It became my favorite after my first week there. I love them so much, and that's on a normal day. This week, I love them especially because Christmas totally came early.

First, yesterday night a friend comes up to me and tells me she has a few groceries in the car. Considering the fact that my grocery shopping last weekend consisted of buying bread and some Cliff Bars as well as the cheapest caffeine I could find, I was beyond excited. And it was good stuff too. Really good. Then, as I was calling my aunt and telling her about this awesome blessing, another friend came up to me and gave me some cash which just added to the awesomeness. I couldn't even thank her properly, because I was on the phone, but I was soaring.

So I'm thinking, that's beyond awesome, right? How could I need anything more to provide for my needs Then tonight, I'm at school and another person comes up to me and says they have some food for me as well. And this one is what got me thinking about abundance. By the time I was done, I had food filling up the entire backseat of my car. The entire thing. It was better than the most epic trip to Wal-Mart ever. I got home and sprinted up my stairs to grab my roommate to help me carry it all up, because it would have taken me forever to do it on my own. That's how much food their was. I haven't even put it all away yet, just the frozen stuff. If I had put it all away, I wouldn't have had the time to write this and get it in before midnight.

The best part is that I have meat now. Like, tons of meat. For those of you who don't know me, I'm totally a carnivore and I feel like my food life is incomplete when there's not a little bit of meat involved. I know there are other ways of getting protein, but none of them are quite as satisfying. And again, it's not like cheap quality. It's so good that I did dances when I got up to my apartment and started unpacking it all. My roommate just stood there gaping when he saw how much there was. It's a veritable cornucopia.

The thing is, I've been super discouraged and stressed about financial stuff and for me not being able to by even my normal allotment of groceries the last couple of weeks was just the icing on the cake of suck. But I made the choice to not focus overly much on my circumstances and instead work off the "God is going to provide, I know it" mentality. Now I don't even know where I'm going to PUT all the food I have. I just can't even comprehend it. I'm still in shock and just giddy.

So now that I've gotten this all out, I'm going to go put away the rest of the food. And just because God is awesome like that, a lot of it is stuff that I don't necessarily have to eat right away, so I can make this blessing last for as long as I need it too, and bless others with it as I feel led (and I'm already brainstorming ways to do that). I'm so excited!