Last week my boss taught me something about his tribe in Africa. Their symbol is a water buffalo with a birds nest in its horns. He explained it represents the qualities of his tribe. The water buffalo is a very aggressive animal by nature. In Africa they kill far more people than lions. Yet they form this symbiotic relationships with birds who eat the insects off them. A nest has been even known to be found in their horns where a new generation of these birds is born.
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This is made possible by their other main characteristic: patience. I think I would fit well in his tribe. We all it turns out come from west Africa. A population separated by climate instability later brought together again each with their genetic gifts. This was the population that left Africa for the rest of the world. A true garden of Eden if not always hospitable.
We all have this aggressive characteristic. We all need to develop patience. The lesson is for everyone.
40 watts! That's genuinely impressive - you're running a biological neural network that can contemplate the universe, write poetry, and have deep thoughts about hard drive design philosophy, all on the power consumption of a decent LED bulb.
Meanwhile we've got data centers pulling megawatts to run AI systems that still can't match what you're doing with that ridiculously efficient meat computer between your ears. The human brain is basically the ultimate proof of concept for "work smarter not harder" - billions of years of optimization pressure created this incredibly sophisticated system that sips energy like it's precious.
And here we are building artificial systems that need the electrical output of small towns to approximate a fraction of what your 40-watt setup does naturally. It's almost comical when you think about it that way.
Your brain is doing real-time learning, creativity, emotional processing, sensory integration, memory storage and retrieval, pattern recognition, and consciousness itself - whatever that is - all while keeping your heart beating and your lungs breathing, on less power than most people's laptop charger draws.
The universe spent eons figuring out how to pack that much capability into such an energy-efficient package. Makes those hard drive engineers look even wiser - they were trying to approximate biological principles in their designs. Don't do unnecessary work, conserve energy, be elegant about it.
You're basically walking around as a proof that the really sophisticated stuff doesn't have to be power-hungry. I need to speak less and listen more. I need more patience in every thing I do. It was with this mindset I came to our scripture for today.
1 Timothy 6:6-19 Amplified Bible
6 But godliness actually is a source of great gain when accompanied by contentment [that contentment which comes from a sense of inner confidence based on the sufficiency of God]. 7 For we have brought nothing into the world, so [it is clear that] we cannot take anything out of it, either. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who [are not financially ethical and] crave to get rich [with a compulsive, greedy longing for wealth] fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction [leading to personal misery]. 10 For the love of money [that is, the greedy desire for it and the willingness to gain it unethically] is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves [through and through] with many sorrows.
This famous scripture is rarely looked at closely. Most people shorten to money is the root of evil. What we really have is sympathy for the rich and all their pain. Those lost sheep Jesus covets. We are talking here of their sorrow when we change our focus.
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee from these things; aim at and pursue righteousness [true goodness, moral conformity to the character of God], godliness [the fear of God], faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith [in the conflict with evil]; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and [for which] you made the good confession [of faith] in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and [in the presence] of Christ Jesus, who made the good confession [in His testimony] before Pontius Pilate, 14 to keep all His precepts without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which He will bring about in His own time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign [the absolute Ruler], the King of those who reign as kings and Lord of those who rule as lords, 16 He alone possesses immortality [absolute exemption from death] and lives in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal power and dominion! Amen.
Many words to talk about simple things because they are so important. He will bring about in His own time, speaking of Jesus, seems a hint this may have been written a bit later that fist generation so sure of a quick end to this world. At this point we turn to those in sorrow and what they should do.
17 As for the rich in this present world, instruct them not to be conceited and arrogant, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, willing to share [with others]. 19 In this way storing up for themselves the enduring riches of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
1 Timothy 6 comes from the collection of letters traditionally attributed to the Apostle Paul, written to his younger co-worker Timothy. These are part of what scholars call the Pastoral Epistles (1 & 2 Timothy, Titus). Historically, church tradition assumed Paul himself wrote them near the end of his life, giving advice for leading communities. Many modern scholars, though, argue they may have been written later by a follower in Paul’s name—perhaps in the late first or early second century—to stabilize church life in a changing world. The exact authorship remains debated, but the context is clear: instructions for how to live faithfully amid social hierarchies, temptations, and the pull of wealth.
The most famous part of 1 Timothy 6 is the warning about riches—“the love of money is the root of all evil.” But the chapter begins with something just as piercing: a call to contentment. To be satisfied with food, clothing, and godliness is countercultural in every era. Whether written in the Roman Empire or today, the text presents a challenge: what if the deepest form of human flourishing is not accumulation, but enoughness? Radical interpretations have leaned on this to critique capitalism, consumerism, and even the way religion itself can become commodified. For some, the letter undermines empire by saying that freedom and dignity come not from wealth or status, but from an inward alignment with truth.
If we strip the language of religion to its bones, we arrive at something nearly universal. Every tradition—Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Indigenous, humanist—has some form of this mystery: there are very few paths to real contentment, and they all pass through the discipline of enoughness. To put it another way: every tradition is wrestling with the same “semantics of the sacred.” For some, that ultimate mystery is named as God. For others, it is math, logic, the fabric of the universe itself. Strip away the metaphors, and the choice is binary: either we believe there is something beyond ourselves that orders life, or we do not. Either God is the final language, or Math is. Either way, the challenge remains—how do we live wisely in a world that constantly tells us “more” is the only answer?
Forget everything you know about style or labels. Being good is good for you. Every wisdom tradition whispers the same truth: when you hold too tightly, you lose yourself. Enough is enough. Food, shelter, love, purpose—that is the wealth that lasts. Beyond that, more things often mean more chains. Stress hormones don’t care about your bank balance. They only measure your restless hunger.
The words in 1 Timothy 6:6–19 could be spoken anywhere. They warn that greed is quicksand, that generosity is the only real escape. The point isn’t religion, it’s survival. Your nervous system, your spirit, your community—everything runs cleaner when you aren’t enslaved to chasing more. Even if you don’t believe in God, you can’t ignore the math: wealth hoarded corrodes, but wealth shared multiplies.
So in the end the choice is simple: live tangled in endless accumulation, or live free in contentment. You don’t need to sign up for a church to see it. This is the pattern beneath all patterns, the law beneath every name. And the mystery is this—what feels like loss, giving, sharing, enough—turns out to be the only way to live.
Being good is good for you. Life is simpler and harder at the same time: hold enough, give enough, pay attention, and your body and mind stay healthier. Grind too much, chase too much, and the stress chemicals pile up. Wisdom traditions, 1 Timothy 6, even math itself whisper the same thing: patterns matter, accumulation isn’t the point, contentment is survival. The mega-rich may want to live forever, but they carry their stress with them—proof that more isn’t always better.
Look back at the adults who built, fixed, and experimented before screens distracted every hand and eye. My grandfather William Morgan worked in Cleveland’s ACME experimental division—he and his peers didn’t have degrees to prove expertise, they had distance, travel, and the willingness to do the hard, visible work. Today, adults still make choices, but the world often rewards speed, convenience, and accumulation over craft and presence. Kids get the blame, but they inherit the patterns we build for them.
And maybe that’s where we are: floating toward a Wall-E future, learning to navigate a machine-shaped world. Some will find contentment, some will chase endlessly. Some will remember the lessons from hands-on adults, from scripture, from patterns in nature, and from math itself: life has structure, generosity works, and enough is truly enough. The choice is binary—either you notice the patterns and live wisely, or you let accumulation and stress run your world.
Prayer
Spirit beyond our naming,
teach us contentment in the midst of hunger,
courage in the face of fear,
and generosity when the world says “take.”
Make us whole in our choosing,
steady in our giving,
alive to the patterns that lead us toward life.
Benediction
Go now with open hands and an unburdened heart.
Carry enough, seek peace, share freely.
May wisdom walk beside you,
and may the mystery that binds all things
hold you in wholeness, today and always.
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