The Paradox of Abundance and Absence

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Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime
How do we center God's abundance better in our lives and fight that fear, the overwhelming sense of scarcity?

Rev. Dr. Claudia Kohli-Reichenbach
It's my deep conviction that abundance is lying within us. Also, I know that's a little bit of a mystical thought, but we do have this mystique in our Reformed tradition.

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime
Yes, we do. Yeah.

Rev. Dr. Claudia Kohli-Reichenbach
We DO have them, and that's my deep conviction. That abundance lies there, and it's a question of, do we perceive it? That's one aspect that I'm deeply convinced. For example, I would say to do some journaling, for example, and to perceive in my daily life the fullness of God. Small steps.

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime
Small steps, they matter.

Rev. Dr. Claudia Kohli-Reichenbach
They matter, and I'm so deeply convinced that the abundance is there, and at the same time, we can't really control it and we can't have it. I mean, that's so interesting for me in the story that in the end, there is this abundance and all the fish. But then they leave, I mean, they take them to the shore, but they don’t matter again. And for me, it's a picture of, or an image of how we can't control it. And there is also absence at the same time. There is abundance and absence at the same time.

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime
Yes, that's such a paradox, with such tension in it, the abundance and the absence, yeah.

Rev. Dr. Claudia Kohli-Reichenbach
And I would say it's a paradox that it's in our experience of God as well. Very much so. Like we can perceive this abundance of God, and at the same time, we can't control God or we don’t HAVE God. For me, that's very key.

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