“The Lord’s Prayer” contains many phrases that can lead us into life more in tune with Jesus and his way. “Give us this day, our daily bread,” helps us to slow down and enter into each moment. To focus on our daily bread requires an ability to distinguish between what we need and what we want. The current global economy not only encourages no distinction, it is dependent, at least in the short run, on blurring the distinction so wants are treated with the same passion and urgency as needs. And since wants never satisfy when removed from needs, our desires become insatiable. Consider the buying practices and the changes a century has brought.
A hundred years ago, the common practice was:
a. figure out what you need.
b. shop to find out where you can get it and what it costs.
c. figure how you can pay for it.
d. buy it.
Today, there are stores around us and online where we can shop with no idea what we ‘need’, until of course we see it, then we know for certain. The current process is:
a. shop to figure out what you ‘need.’
b. buy it.
c. figure out how you can pay for it. (often because you have to in order to be able to buy anything else)
d. learn what it costs.
The practice of “Give us this day our daily bread” begins by noticing the difference between needs (your daily bread) and wants (your daily banana pudding). Wants feel like needs, and unless we know the difference, we may get everything we want and starve to death or die of loneliness. William Sloane Coffin offers this reminder,
The biblical reminder is clear: whatever our economic system, the enemy is excess, not possessions.
The battle cry is “Enough!” Not “Nothing.”
“Enough” so that we can all break bread together,
so that everyone’s prayer can be answered – “Give us this day our daily bread.”
To explore the idea of Enough, the following books may be helpful:
