Five Minute Friday - Waste

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One word. Five minutes to write about it. This is the idea behind Five Minute Friday and this is today's free-writing post.

such a waste

waste of time and money

waste not, want not

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It makes me so upset when I forget about leftovers or produce that I've got in the fridge until it's too late and it's gone bad. It's a waste of food, which is also a waste of money. To be honest, it's the wasted money that bothers me more. To have spent those dollars on a bag of salad greens and then wind up throwing half of it away feels like shredding up a five dollar bill. 

I've changed my thinking about buying groceries and household goods in bulk too. When I had a whole house with plenty of storage space and a deep freeze, and there were up to half a dozen people being fed and housed, it made sense to stock up when meat was on sale or to buy cases of canned goods or paper products. I don't have room to keep bulk items so it's not really a savings if we won't be able to eat the food before it's stale or if the cases of paper towels are just in our way. We're wasting the money if we've tied it up in something we're not getting value from.

The math of God's economy doesn't always work quite the same as our world's, but God doesn't ever waste resources and doesn't want us to waste what he gives us. He blesses us so we can bless others. He gives abundantly so we can share abundance rather than hoard it. We can never outgive God, and very often we find that when we give back to him or give generously to others, he somehow stretches or multiplies what we have so our needs are met even as we open our hands.

Some years ago, I started pondering this little piece of the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand:

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distrivuted to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

~John 6:11-13~

I'm sure there are many facets to this simple statement, and there's much more than just broken pieces of bread that Jesus is talking about. Practically speaking, maybe those leftovers provided a meal or two for the disciples over the next day. I think it's so interesting that Jesus fed a multitude using just one person's humble lunch, and all had enough to eat, plus there was abundance remaining after they were satisfied! Enough to feed more people later on, so don't let it be wasted. The bread also represents God's Word, and even after Jesus taught all those people, his words continued in their hearts and were shared with others, and continued to be shared to this day. And there is value in every word of God, so don't let any of it be wasted. Store it up in your heart and let it continue to teach and change you.

What other lessons can this story teach us about not letting God's abundance be wasted?

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This post is linked at Five Minute Friday for the word prompt "Waste".

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