Beautiful Wastefulness
Early this summer, I saw an Instagram post that used the term “beautiful wastefulness.” I scrolled on and forgot the exact context of the post, but that one phrase has been stuck in my mind for months.
It’s an intriguing thought, that wastefulness could ever be beautiful. “Waste not, want not,” right?
Whether it’s time, money, food, or energy, we’re all about being efficient and making our resources stretch as far as possible. It’s both a survival instinct and a moral virtue.
But as with most virtues, the gospel flips it on its head, giving us a whole new way to look at it.
For a biblical example, lately I’ve been drawn to the character of Mary in the Bible (the sister of Martha and Lazarus.)
This Mary shows up three times in the gospels. First is the story where she sits at the feet of Jesus while Martha serves, next is when Lazarus is raised from the dead, and finally when she anoints the feet of Jesus.
Two of these three appearances involve her doing something we would call wasteful. Sitting on the floor while her sister serves their guests seems a little self-centered and inconsiderate, wasting not only her time but her sister’s too. Spending a year’s wages on perfume to simply pour out on Jesus’ feet - so reckless!
Be honest, how would you feel if you were Martha, run off your feet to serve your guests while your sister simply sits? What if you watched someone spend $40,000 on a jar of perfume, just to pour it out on Jesus’ feet? Even if Judas didn’t truly care about the poor, he had a good point - that much money could have done them a lot of good.
But apparently Jesus didn’t see Mary’s behavior as irresponsible. In both stories she receives glowing praise from him. (and when Jesus says something is good, that is not an opinion. That’s truth.)
When we are so careful and measured with our resources, we assume we’re in full control of whatever is in our possession. We assume what we have to offer is limited to what we are able to access on our own.
But if everything we have and everything we don’t have belongs to our Father, our resources are not limited. The more we pour out for his kingdom, the more he provides.
This isn’t to promote deliberate, inconsiderate, wastefulness; just that maybe sometimes it’s better to be wasteful than to be stingy. To steward our resources well, but never hesitate to give freely of whatever we have.
After writing most of this, I finally went back to look at the Instagram post where I first saw this phrase, and thought I was going to have to rewrite the whole thing. Because here’s what it says:
“Limited.
“My time. My resources. My knowledge. My love.
“Limited.
“So I can feel the beautiful wastefulness of giving someone my precious attention and receiving theirs in return. To be known and loved. Isn’t that what we’re all after?”
(click here if you want to read the whole post. Highly recommend doing so and also following Mike Donehey for insights like this on a daily basis.)
Wait, didn’t I just write about how our resources are not limited, when apparently this phrase I’ve had in my head for months was written about how they are limited?
As I thought about it more, though, I realized I wasn’t too far off.
MY resources are very much limited. My God’s are not.
I can waste my resources, but God never wastes a thing.
The beauty of wasting our time and energy in the service of Christ is that we are not in control of what we’ll receive in return.
But God is, and he will give us all we ever need.
So we can joyfully pour out whatever comes through our hands, knowing we’ll always have more than enough to keep on knowing God and making him known.