When is enough, enough?

Enough for you and those who are dependent on you and little more to share with those in need.

originally posted by: semperfortis
Take into account the Native Americans and their history. They never went through an industrial revolution as their entire culture was predicated on satisfaction with their current lives. They lived in a land of plenty where nature/God provided them all they needed for a full and satisfactory life. Europeans on the other hand found their populations increasing and their need for “more” escalating at a phenomenal rate.

This can also be compared to the Native Americans in their historical lack of taking other lives even in their own kind of warfare. Quite often “counting coup” held far more honor to them then did the taking of a life. They had enough.

Let me explain something about Native American tribes to you. I don't know much about the Eastern tribes but I can tell you all about the western ones.

Two things that the western tribes had in common is that they were always moving around in search of food and resources from season to season and were always at war with other tribes.

The Nez Perce, for example, had a territory that encompassed eastern Washington, Idaho and western Montana. And they found themselves in constant conflict with the Crow, the Blackfeet and the Yakama who looked to control certain resources or claim territory away from the Nez Perce.

The Crow, on the other hand, were in a constant battle with the Sioux.

When the Europeans arrived in the west, the inter-tribal fighting intensified. Free roaming game was being over hunted. Furs now had a monetary value that each tribe wanted to control.

And then came the Indian Wars after the formation of the United States, when those former Europeans decided THEY wanted that territory and those resources.

To the OP

Why do you pray that you be neither poor nor rich? I beg your pardon but that is plain crazy. What you ask for in life is what you get whether you ask God or the Lilly pastel hanging in the living room. Why do you sell yourself short?

a reply to: Shema

Perhaps it is crazy to you, yet not too me..

Money changes people and I like who and what I am.. While I am not particularly proud of my complete past, the things I have done needed doing and there are people alive today because I was able to do them..

So...

Neither rich nor poor for me

originally posted by: Shema
Why do you pray that you be neither poor nor rich? I beg your pardon but that is plain crazy.

I worked at a Franciscan monastery for almost 10 years. The nun in charge (The Mother Superior) there prayed for the same thing. She said that she, and the nuns, would pray that their monastery remained solvent and financially secure ... but not TOO secure. She didn't want them to become wealthy or too comfortable. Her thinking on this was that with excess wealth comes problems ... spiritual problems and emotional problems. The more you have, the more you have to worry about. The more you have, the more you forget that others dont' have as much. You forget to be grateful.

Anyways, that's what she said and that's how she ran her monastery.
Made sense.

a reply to: semperfortis

What a fantastic thread Semper, SnF. Just looking over the
forum and found it. I believe we live in a world that God in
his beautiful and ultimate wisdom, did not intend for us.
Where it's inhuman rigidity thrives in " The root of all evi ".

It is this world man has created, that moves us to desire
as much distance, between us and poverty as we can get.
And while the Father would not find blame in us for that
alone. We all share the blame for creating our situation.

We are the only planet in the universe that has been
isolated and quarantined by corruption. But we can have
a great victory that will set the example for all of heaven
for eons to come. We have to separate our wants, from
our needs. Because our wants, indirectly cause others to
starve.