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Jim McCrory

A Heart of Mercy Overshadowed By Human Structures

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Edited by Jim McCrory, Tuesday, 22 July 2025, 11:41

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Lagom: The Balance We've Forgotten or Need to Learn

There’s a quiet wisdom in the Swedish word Lagom. It means “not too much, not too little—just the right amount.” It’s not a flashy word. It doesn’t demand attention or trumpet moral superiority. It simply sits in the middle, content, steady, and sufficient.

The older I get, the more I believe that this modest idea holds the key to many of the world’s problems.

We live in a time of grotesque excess and tragic scarcity. One man buys a second yacht for prestige; another man dies of dehydration beneath a cracked sky. Supermarkets throw out tonnes of food while mothers queue at food banks. We hear it every day—and we grow numb to it. But the problem isn’t the earth. The problem is people.

I’m not an economist. I’ve never studied graphs or economic theory. But it doesn’t take a degree to see that the planet has enough to go around—if only we lived with Lagom in mind. Enough land. Enough food. Enough energy. The imbalance is not in resources; it is in the human heart.

The unwillingness to part with wealth lies at one end. We cling, hoard, defend, justify. Accumulation becomes a virtue. And at the other end of the spectrum lies the inability to steward wealth wisely when it is given. We squander. We chase appearance. We mimic the rich with no deeper sense of purpose or restraint. And the pendulum swings wildly, never quite settling at centre.

The Bible, in its practical brilliance, gave us something worth remembering: the Year of Jubilee. Every fifty years, land was to be returned, debts forgiven, and slaves released. It was a divine reset—a rebalancing of the scale to prevent generational injustice and runaway inequality. Can you imagine the courage it would take to actually do that now? But perhaps Jubilee wasn’t just a social policy. It was a heart policy. A call to Lagom. To learn how to have enough—and let others have enough too.

That’s the trouble, isn’t it? The very idea of “enough” is a threat to those whose identity is tied to more. We fear Lagom will lead to lack. But in truth, it’s the path to peace.

I don’t believe in enforced equality—the kind that flattens character and erases individuality. But I do believe in chosen balance. I believe in the spiritual discipline of contentment. I believe in the holy rhythm of restraint. And I believe, deeply, that we would heal much of the world if we stopped asking how much we could have and started asking how much we really need.

Nature teaches us this. It grows in cycles. It rests. It renews. It yields just enough—until greed disturbs it. The earth is not unkind. It’s generous. But it expects us to live in rhythm with it, not against it.

Lagom is not mediocrity. It’s maturity. It’s what happens when we see the world not as a competition, but as a shared inheritance. When we live not for the temporary thrill of abundance, but for the quiet joy of sufficiency.

If there is any hope for society, it will be found not in another revolution, nor in another market correction—but in men and women who learn how to say, “This is enough. And I will share.”

 

 

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