The Myth of Scarcity - Illustrated by Jake the Dog

I have begun to suspect that the anxiety of our age may even extend to pets.

One night Jake had been impossible in his demands for attention. He must have been feeling insecure about all the other dogs parading by our house, because he would bark at them and then insist on having our undivided attention. He would put his forelegs on my lap and stare meaningfully into my eyes, so that I could see only Jake. His unique breath filled my nostrils so that I could only think of Jake.

Almost as a form of bribery we gave him a rawhide bone to chew on. Our hope was that his attention would be fixed on the bone and he would leave us alone. For a few minutes that was the case. But after awhile Jake pacing around the room. Debbie and I were fascinated. At one point he placed the bone behind a pillow on the love seat. Moments later he picked the bone up and continued wandering around the house.

Eventually we realized that Jake was trying to find a place to safely store the bone. And he was becoming more agitated as his search continued. Nowhere in the house was suitable. He began to whine as he carried the bone from room to room. And his pacing and whining were worse than his meaningful stares.

Finally Debbie took the bone away from him and stored it in the cupboard. And that seemed to satisfy Jake, who by now was exhausted.

Jake illustrates the power of the myth of scarcity by becoming more anxious when he is given a bone. Now he has to find a place to hide and protect that bone in case a marauding dog should enter our house and look behind the pillow on the love seat and take Jake's bone. Or the myth convinces Jake that he will never again receive a bone from us and therefore this one must be protected at all costs even to the point of giving up the joy of chewing the bone.

Scholar and theologian Walter Brueggemann in an essay entitled "The Truth of Abundance" argues that because the basis of the myth of scarcity is anxiety, not economic analysis, the best way to combat it is with a different view of reality: one he calls a lyric of abundance. The lyric of abundance begins with reflecting on the nature of the God we worship.

[from a sermon by Phil Peterson - Where Your Treasure Is (The Lyric of Abundance)]