Baking and a Scarcity Mindset
Since I started this bakery, I have noticed that I feel a lot of pressure to use and make just the right amount so that I would have no leftovers. One of the beauties of the cake-in-a-jar is just that! I can use every single crumb. I have felt this pressure for a while, but as I only baked about twice a month before this business, I never spent much time with it. On my best days, I would justify it as being a good steward of my ingredients by not wanting to be wasteful. On my worst, it was because I was lazy and didn’t want to make more of something if I didn’t have to. Not totally true, but not totally false…
But, now, as I have been baking most weeks since July, I have been forced to sit with this pressure as it is ever present and has led to frustration and anxiety in my baking. I believe that this pressure I am feeling goes beyond stewardship and beyond negative self-talk. I believe that is pressure comes from a deep fear that there is not enough and I must be frugal in order to survive. This is the scarcity mindset.
Before this baking business, I didn’t quite understand the scarcity mindset. After all, there are some things in the world that are indeed scarce and I, as a Christian, am called to be mindful of waste and to steward my resources well. This is all true! What I have come to understand is that the scarcity mindset is based in fear rather than a desire to do good. It is the fear of “not enough.” Not enough time. Not enough money. Not enough energy. Not enough customers (I’ll get to this one in a minute).
The fear of not having enough took root in my childhood and bloomed in my early 20s. I grew up with four brothers on a farm. As you can imagine, my brothers ate a lot and there was this fear that if I didn’t eat now and didn’t eat fast, there wouldn’t be any left. My dad also had a hard time throwing things away as they might be needed one day and what would we do if we didn’t have that one thing when the need arose? There never seemed to be enough food or things.
As a young adult, I struggled financially and relied on loans to get me through college and Seminary. In college, I shoved a week’s worth of activities into a 2-day time frame. In Seminary, I found that I could no longer do as much and maintain my health. There never seemed to be enough money, time, or energy.
Eventually, there never seemed to be enough friends, grace, or love.
There never seemed to be enough.
The first time I remember fighting against the scarcity mindset was when I was an Associate Pastor. I was in charge of revamping the Kid’s Ministry and a big part of that is volunteers. At a conference, they challenged us to pray for, seek, and find volunteers out of a place of abundance rather than scarcity. To believe and have faith that God has set aside enough volunteers for the Kid’s Ministry. Not just that, but there are enough volunteers for the welcome team, worship team, and tech booth as well! And if there are not enough, that might be an indication that something needs to change.
As a baker, the biggest area that I have seen this in is customers. In NWI, there have been quite a few bakeries that have popped up over the last few months. We have Twisted Sugar, Crumble Cookie, Great Harvest Bread Co, Rise and Roll, and then many small business bakeries such as A Little Bit of Madness, Sugarbutter Bakery, Refuge Coffee, Carmen’s, Josie’s Bakes, Bao’s, and so many more! If we believe that there are not enough customers for all of us, then we worry, we run ourselves ragged, we tear each other down. All so we can make sure we get our customers.
The reality is that there are more than enough customers for all of us. The census of NWI from 2020 showed that over 830,000 people live in Lake, Porter, LaPorte, and Newton County. 830,000! We would need a whole lot of bakeries to service and satisfy 830,000 people! If I was the only bakery, I would need to set some real good boundaries or die from exhaustion. Not only this, but each bakery specializes in different baked goods. Not everyone does cake. Not everyone does cinnamon rolls. Not everyone does bagels, etc. So, we are each going to attract different types of customers.
All of these truths have led me to believe that the idea of business competition is born out of a scarcity mindset. I have always wanted this business to be uplifting for the community and that means that I cannot come from a fear of not enough. I must function from a place of more than enough. I want my business to come from the overflow of my heart, not the scraps from my table. As I have been working on this perspective shift, I have found new space for generosity, creativity, collaboration, and joy!
I still have a ways to go, as the scarcity mindset runs deep and I still not 100% sure what it looks like to live without it, but I am grateful for the ways in which God has exposed this fear in my life and shown me a different way of being.
