Lately the entire world seems to be running out of things. At first it was the toilet paper. Carts so overloaded with the stuff that entire warehouses ran out in minutes. Then it turned more serious with food shortages. Bread, eggs, frozen pizzas, and cleaning products–all the basics in low supply. Last week the headlines turned to the shortages of masks, gloves, ventilators, and oxygen tanks. Experts predict that next the terrifying deficit will be hospital beds, doctors, and God forbid, morgues. Leaders are slamming other leaders; not enough medical help, not enough federal aid, not enough money.

If you are not working in an under-resourced hospital or other essential service that’s squeaking by on the bare minimum to keep things running, then you are probably one of the millions of Americans truly stuck at home with no job, no paycheck, and no idea of when those things will return.

Both as a nation and a world, we’ve come up painfully short. We are short on hospital space, lab technicians, and tests. We are short on ideas. We’re short on cash, and we’re short on time. To address one problem only worsens another. We either doom people’s lives or doom their livelihoods.

Our knee-jerk reaction during times of crisis is to protect ourselves. All it takes is a walk down a Walmart paper goods aisle to see that. We look for ways to keep our own families safe. In the face of scarcity, we stockpile. Turned inward, we conserve what we have, and damn others when they get in our way.

It’s easy to see the world through the lens of scarcity right now. However, as a follower of Jesus, that lens doesn’t fit in what should be my frame.

The worldview which supposedly defines me is one of abundance. God plants a garden. He gives it to humans as a generous gift and tells them to eat freely and go make more of it. An astute reader will notice an undercurrent of unrestricted fruitfulness–of endless resource and bursting potential–that runs the whole length of the Bible. And while we’d like to think in times like this that sin has messed all that up, Jesus himself operates under the worldview that there is enough.

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on…Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap, nor gather into barns, and yet, your heavily Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they…If God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you?…But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matt. 6: 25-33

The truth is that humans love to dwell in worry. We love to think of ourselves, worry about us and our clan, and take advantage of things to get the upper hand.

In the mind of Jesus this is how the world works, but it’s not how the Kingdom works. In the Kingdom, there is enough. There is a generous Giver who bestows everything lavishly on everyone. There is a cloud that rains down manna, a rod in the hand of an old man that parts the sea and swallows our enemies. There is a garden and a tree, and a new Vine bearing enough fruit to feed the entire world. We can’t see it, but it’s here. Jesus told us the Kingdom is at hand. Abundance is at hand.

In this time of global crisis where everything is scare, I’m challenged to wake up and look at the world through this lens of abundance. But when people are separated from their loved ones or when the system we count on collapses under the pressure, this becomes a hard ethic to embrace. When the paycheck stops and money is weeks away, what are we to do?

And I am no saint here. It wasn’t long ago that questions like these would have sent me into a panicked frenzy. In my own home right now, this virus is affecting our family. Our source of income is on hold, and we have no idea when that will resume or what damage this shutdown will cause. Like many we are healthy now, but for how long?

And so our grim situation creates the atmosphere the world is currently running on: anxiety, desperation, and fear. But in my spirit I am wrestling against those natural responses. While all very real, they are at odds with my new humanity in Jesus. When the world tells me there isn’t enough, He calls me to live in the abundance of the Kingdom.

Brothers and sisters, I will not downplay the gravity of the COVID-19 situation. To do so would be a grossly insensitive and frankly, unhelpful, move. Instead I urge my fellow Jesus followers to see this as a time to dig in. It’s a time when we are called to live by Kingdom rules when the Kingdom is hard to see. We must choose to live as though there is enough, even in scarcity.

This means radical generosity. It means unwavering trust. It means purchasing the extra bag of groceries for a friend or assisting a neighbor when they’re in need. It means leaving a larger tip, being unusually inventive, choosing to exercise extra patience with our families, and spending the extra ten minutes at bedtime going to war in prayer for those on the front lines. It means we reach out wherever we can, however we can, as often as we can. And it means that when we are down and out, we lay down our shame and guilt and ask for help.

Kingdom living takes grit. And grit is hard to come by when the tragedies once on the other side of the world are now pounding relentlessly on our doors. But Jesus words echo loudly in my mind. “You of little faith!” Matt. 6:30

It is with great faith we must step forward into the Kingdom. We live by its rules and hold fast to the truth that our jobs, our money, our children, the food in our pantries, the gas in our cars, and the very breath in our struggling lungs is a gift. An abundance mindset should define us all; it should be the light in this uncertain time. May we have the faith to give freely and use our resources wisely, trusting that the God who provides for the birds provides for us. Because in the Kingdom, there is enough.