the unreasonable notion of abundance

We hired Richard to tile the floor in our basement kitchen.

Was that a wise decision?

It depends on the lenses you see through.

Some folks would have taken three days to wrap up that job. Not Richard.

After three weeks of excessive smoke breaks, long conversations about his life, adhesive that somehow “dried up too fast,” mysteriously depleted materials, and loose tiles that “somebody must be messin with”… he claimed the job was done.

Through the lens of scarcity…

We threw our money away. We’ll have to buy more materials and pay someone else. It was an unreasonable waste of the budget - both time and money.

Through the lens of abundance…

During three weeks of bitter Denver cold and snow, Richard, a homeless man who lives out of his car, had a warm place to be during the day. We furthered our relationship through many meaningful conversations and perhaps he experienced some small sense of empowerment.