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    The Opposite Of More Is Enough
    The Opposite Of More Is Enough
    The Opposite Of More Is Enough
    Ebook197 pages2 hours

    The Opposite Of More Is Enough

    By Sydney Douglas Smith

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    About this ebook

    All the proceeds raised from sales of this eBook, together with sales of the printed version will be donated to a range of programs organized by The Salvation Army and World Vision as the author deems best suited to assist in the alleviation of world Starvation, Hunger and Poverty.

    The opposite of more is enough is a wonderful combination of true stories, scriptures, poetry, anecdotes and facts that have left many of the contributors with the knowledge that God has been busy in their lives in a way that has changed outcomes sometimes with complete surprise.

    We are often painted a picture by the world of a God who does not do enough for people. Yet the consensus that has come through from stories told is that God does in fact love the world and we do not really need more of anything because we already have enough and that God uses everything that happens to us in life, even the bad things, to weave our life into a tapestry which to us looks like a jumble of different coloured ends, yet when we get an occasional glimpse at what he is doing it looks to be sufficient (ENOUGH).

    The author shows us, through well researched facts, how hunger, starvation and poverty are decimating many countries and that a great deal of waste has and still is occurring in both developed and undeveloped countries.

    However, there are two questions asked as challenges.

    (a) If we do have enough then why are so many people suffering?

    (b) What can we do to alleviate world suffering?

    The author makes it clear that we who have enough (even if we don’t think we have) can’t just do nothing. Nothing is not an option!

    In fact, we are given a list of ten things we can do as a challenge, some of these do not cost money, gifts or time and those that do cost only as much as you want to contribute.

    The UN have a set of 17 sustainable goals that it aims to realise by 2030 and the author feels that if we all do something from the ten choices given that these goals are achievable.

    That means in TEN YEARS ONLY, NO Starvation, No Hunger, No Poverty, No Climate Change.

    In the words of John Lennon IMAGINE.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSydney Douglas Smith
    Release dateApr 15, 2020
    ISBN9780463521861
    The Opposite Of More Is Enough
    Author

    Sydney Douglas Smith

    I was born into a "working class" family and spent my childhood learning to "be happy with what you have" My father was the hard working head of a very poor but very loving family.I was bullied by my peers and by the education system and I came to believe the many negative things that were told me such as; "You are a stupid boy", "You can never learn", "You will never be anything in your life".In addition I was brought up in an age where Class and religious distinctions and prejudices decided what sort of a person you were destined to become and more or less how you were to live your life. Any signs of ambition were quickly stifled by a lifestyle and social system driven by the upper class.An inherited work ethic and the ability to care deeply for others (especially the under-dog) are among the life gifts that carried me through-out my early years even though I didn't have a relationship with God then. I found God later in life (about 45), and this led me to college where I learned that I wasn't stupid after all, and I could learn new skills, using my gifts and be valuable to God and other people. I became a Counsellor with Lifeline, and attained many qualifications I thought I could never get.Yes I have been knocked down in life, quite a few times. Sometimes because of wrong decisions I have made, sometimes when others have hurt me and sometimes just because of life, but through it all there has been a great God who even in the depths of my hurt, fear and sorrow has just reached down, taken my hand and gently lifted me!My theme song is a re-written version of the tub-thumping song “ I get knocked down, he lifts me up again”It helps also that I have had a good wife who has stuck by me in the hard times and helped me celebrate the good times, thank you Ruby for being there to lift and encourage me and also keeping me grounded when I get above myself.I currently have a small Life Coaching practice where I teach and mentor “Bright Endings” in a one-on-one environment or group workshops where people can and do move past the mistakes and disappointments of the past and even learning to appreciate some of the lessons learned to help create for themselves a “Bright Ending”After a lifetime of many failures and some great success stories I have learned to lean on God in the tough times and thank Him for everything.We are not able to go back and change the beginnings, undo the mistakes or redo the regrets in our story! BUT we can start now and write a brand new ending.I am living in the peace and calm that comes as we are able to find what I call the "sweet spot' in our life that is the purpose for us which I am sure we are pre-destined to be before we were born.

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      Book preview

      The Opposite Of More Is Enough - Sydney Douglas Smith

      God’s Tapestry (Cover)

      Just as someday we will see the beautiful tapestry God has been creating through our painful moments, through the events we never would have chosen, in the same way, we will see the tapestry this Master Weaver has been creating through those good deeds. We will see how a kind word resounded in a person’s heart even days and weeks later; we will see how that small amount of money was used to accomplish something amazing; we will see how that little shred of the gospel was the pebble in the shoe of the person who had hardened himself against God.

      Someday God will show us his tapestry, we will see how God has woven each of these little deeds together to His own glory, and we will rejoice.

      Here is Corrie Ten Boom’s poem:

      My life is but a weaving

      Between my God and me.

      I cannot choose the colours

      He weaveth steadily.

      Oft’ times He weaveth sorrow;

      And I in foolish pride

      Forget He sees the upper

      And I the underside.

      Not ’til the loom is silent

      And the shuttles cease to fly

      Will God unroll the canvas

      And reveal the reason why.

      The dark threads are as needful

      In the weaver’s skilful hand

      As the threads of gold and silver

      In the pattern He has planned

      He knows, He loves, He cares;

      Nothing this truth can dim.

      He gives the very best to those

      Who leave the choice to Him

      .

      ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. Ecclesiastes 3: 10-13

      e·nough

      (ĭ-nŭf′)

      adj. Sufficient to meet a need or satisfy a desire; adequate:

      enough work to keep us all busy. See Synonyms at sufficient.

      pron. An adequate number or quantity:

      The Gods above should give, / They have enough, and we do poorly live (Henry David Thoreau).

      Oliver Asks for More

      Oliver Twist - Condensed from Chapter Two

      Nine-year-old Oliver is a resident in the parish workhouse where the boys are issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and half a bread roll on Sundays. The workhouse is run by Bumble the Beadle, Limbkins is Chairman of the Board of Guardians for the workhouse.

      The room in which the boys were fed, was a large stone hall, with a copper at one end: out of which the master, dressed in an apron for the purpose, and assisted by one or two women, ladled the gruel at mealtimes. Of this festive composition, each boy had one porringer, and no more--except on occasions of great public rejoicing when he had two ounces and a quarter of bread besides.

      The bowls never wanted washing. The boys polished them with their spoons till they shone again; and when they had performed this operation (which never took very long, the spoons being nearly as large as the bowls), they would sit staring at the copper, with such eager eyes, as if they could have devoured the very bricks of which it was composed; employing themselves, meanwhile, in sucking their fingers most assiduously, with the view of catching up any stray splashes of gruel that might have been cast thereon. Boys have generally excellent appetites.

      Oliver Twist and his companions suffered the tortures of slow starvation for three months: at last, they got so voracious and wild with hunger, that one boy, who was tall for his age, and hadn't been used to that sort of thing (for his father had kept a small cook-shop), hinted darkly to his companions, that unless he had another basin of gruel per diem, he was afraid he might some night happen to eat the boy who slept next him, who happened to be a weakly youth of tender age. He had a wild, hungry eye; and they implicitly believed him.

      A council was held; lots were cast who should walk up to the master after supper that evening and ask for more, and it fell to Oliver Twist. The evening arrived; the boys took their places. The master, in his cook's uniform, stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out, and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered each other and winked at Oliver, while his next neighbours nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said somewhat alarmed at his own temerity:

      'Please, sir, I want some more.' The master was a fat, healthy man; but he turned very pale. He gazed in astonishment on the small rebel for some seconds and then clung for support to the copper. The assistants were paralysed with wonder, the boys with fear.

      'What!' said the master at length, in a faint voice. 'Please, sir,' replied Oliver, 'I want some more.' The master aimed a blow at Oliver's head with the ladle; pinioned him in his arm; and shrieked aloud for the beadle.

      The board were sitting in the solemn conclave when Mr Bumble rushed into the room in great excitement, and addressing the gentleman in the high chair, said, 'Mr. Limbkins, I beg your pardon, sir! Oliver Twist has asked for more!'

      There was a general start. Horror was depicted on every countenance. 'For MORE!' said Mr Limbkins. 'Compose yourself, Bumble, and answer me distinctly. Do I understand that he asked for more after he had eaten the supper allotted by the dietary?' 'He did, sir,' replied Bumble.

      'That boy will be hung,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat. 'I know that boy will be hung. 'Nobody controverted the prophetic gentleman's opinion. An animated discussion took place. Oliver was ordered into instant confinement; and a bill was next morning pasted on the outside of the gate, offering a reward of five pounds to anybody who would take Oliver Twist off the hands of the parish. In other words, five pounds and Oliver Twist were offered to any man or woman who wanted an apprentice to any trade, business or calling.

      'I never was more convinced of anything in my life,' said the gentleman in the white waistcoat, as he knocked at the gate and read the bill next morning: 'I never was more convinced of anything in my life than I am that that boy will come to be hung.'

      Have you ever asked for more?

      I know I have; I have asked many times for many things. I have asked my parents for more, my siblings for more, my friends for more, my wife for more and I have asked God for more.

      I have even tried to bargain with God, asking Him to get me out of a problem of one kind or another in exchange for me being a better person and staying out of trouble in the future (more Grace for bigger sin)

      A better car, a bigger tv good health and more money come to mind as some of the oft-made requests I have put to God with or without thanks and justification for asking.

      Do you know that even Jesus, asked for more? In the garden, Jesus asked God to let the cup of his soon to be horrific death pass by him. Jesus’ prayer to let this cup pass from me contains two important qualifications. First, He prays, If it is possible. If there was any other way to redeem mankind, Jesus asks to take that other way.

      The events following His prayer show that there was no other way; Jesus Christ is the only possible sacrifice to redeem the world (John 1:29; Acts 4:12; Hebrews 10:14; Revelation 5:9). Second, Jesus prays, Yet not as I will, but as you will. Jesus was committed to the will of God, body, mind, and soul. The prayer of the righteous is always dependent on the will of God (see Matthew 6:10).

      He also asked for many more things such as life, food and healing. However, His prayers and petitions for more were always for someone else and always in humility and love for others.

      I think like me you have asked for more as well. There are times in life that find us wanting more even when we know we don’t need more or don’t deserve it. In this materialistic world, self has become so important that we fail to see the suffering of others, yet others are suffering right in front of our very eyes.

      Most children growing up in many countries of the world today would never know the hunger like that suffered by Oliver Twist and his friends. But in saying that I am filled with compassion and guilt because there exists a deeper sense of hunger. Many millions of people are suffering tortuous deaths from starvation and famine even now in 2019. Here are just a few facts that I discovered while researching this book which illustrate that the opposite of more really is enough.

      Approximately 842 million people suffer from hunger worldwide. That’s almost 12 percent of the world’s population of 7.1 billion people. Over 60 percent of the world hungry are women, who have limited access to resources because of the societies in which they live.

      Psalm 23

      (English Standard Version)

      A Psalm of David.

      The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

      He makes me lie down in green pastures.

      He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.

      He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

      Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

      I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

      You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

      You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

      Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,

      And I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

      Psalm 23 is a psalm of King David expressing confidence and trust in the Lord that in all circumstances we already have been provided with enough, nothing else we need, we are in the right place, nothing to fear, restored, protected and loved beyond all expectations. At every turn, it reveals the close relationship David shares with his God. 

      The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

      David portrays God as a loving shepherd, a role the psalmist would have been deeply familiar with, as much of his boyhood was spent caring for his father’s sheep.

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