Although my mother is turning 83 in a few weeks, she is still teaching me lessons. I went to check on her recently, and she is as alert, mobile, and feisty as ever. Perhaps the most telling indicator of her wellbeing is her newly acquired habit of sending my two brothers and I selfies of the outfit she wears to church every Sunday morning. Although I am still quite uncomfortable with the idea, I applaud her tech savvy ways lol. Mrs Lizzie Miller Robinson seems to be faring well.

A day or so into my recent visit, I asked if she still had my cake in the freezer.

Some background: each year, my mother makes me a German Chocolate cake for Thanksgiving. I rarely eat it all in one visit, and prefer not to take it home with me on the plane. So I usually eat a few pieces and ask her to freeze the rest. So when I asked if she still had my cake, without any hesitation she retrieved my cake from the freezer and skillfully wrapped it in a plastic bag. Thoughtlessly, I put the cake in my bag and came back home.

I ate a piece of the cake last night. It seemed all so normal until it struck me how absolutely abnormal the entire affair was. Then I paused to reflect on what was happening. It occurred to me how amazing it was to be sitting in my office eating a piece of cake that was made last November!! I praise God for that mother of mine. She reminded me of a very crucial lesson: the power of living on leftovers.

In his book American Wasteland, Johnathan Bloom makes the astounding contention that Americans throw away enough food each year to fill the Rose Bowl. For those of you who don’t live in Southern California and may not be football fans, the Rose Bowl is where the UCLA Bruins play their football games and where the annual Rose Bowl college football game is held in January. It also seats 90,000 people! If Mr. Bloom’s contention is correct, then it is a telling, but tragic fact. It is telling because it helps us understand just how wealthy our country is. But it is tragic because it also helps us understand at least one reason why poverty prevails. It’s not that we can’t address hunger insecurity in our country. It’s that we won’t.

According to Mr. Bloom, we waste between 25 to 50 percent of all food produced in the United States. It happens at all stages of the food production cycle. Some is left to rot in farm fields; some is discarded by grocers for not being the right size, shape, or color; and some makes it all the way to our plates, only to languish as leftovers at the back of the fridge or get pushed into the trash or garbage disposal. But unfortunately, food isn’t all we waste.

We waste time.

We waste money.

We waste opportunities.

We waste relationships.

According to one definition, to waste is “to consume, spend, or employ uselessly or without adequate return; use to no avail or profit; squander:” It can also mean “to fail or neglect to use.”

So here’s my question for you today: What are you wasting?

Depending on how you count, Jesus performed between 33 and 40 miracles. The only miracle that occurs in each of the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is traditionally referred to as the feeding of the five thousand. It is a miracle that is full of incredible lessons. and poignant truths. It is a reminder that Jesus is concerned about our bodies and not just our souls—because he fed a multitude that had been listening to him teach all day. It is a reminder that Jesus can take a little and do alot—because he took a few pieces of bread and fish and used them to satisfy the hunger of a vast crowd. And it is a reminder that often the least likely people have the key to our problems—because it was a little boy who had the bread and fish.

But there is one aspect of this miracle that we often overlook. According to John 6:12

After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.

One of my seminary professors pointed out that it isn’t accidental that they were able to fill twelve baskets with the leftovers. Since there were twelve disciples, it stands to reason that each disciple got a basket! It is clear that Jesus was trying to instill principles of thrift, frugality, and economy into the thinking of his followers. It seems that Jesus wanted us to understand that miracles don’t happen every day. But when they do, we should not waste them. In our seasons of overflow and abundance, we should always grab a basket so that nothing is lost.

Instead of asking God for more, how about we start asking God to make us better managers? If we become better managers, we can eat this year’s cake next year.