{"id":290,"date":"2010-07-07T08:39:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-07T08:39:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/worthwhile-wastefulness.html"},"modified":"2010-07-07T08:39:31","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T08:39:31","slug":"worthwhile-wastefulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/worthwhile-wastefulness.html","title":{"rendered":"Worthwhile Wastefulness"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

William, as usual, stood on his tiptoes to turn the light on
\nat the bottom of the stairs. He then reached up again to turn it off.
\n“William,” I said, in my warning voice. “You can turn it off one time but then
\nit needs to stay off.”<\/span><\/p>\n

He nodded. “Waste energy.” <\/p>\n

It’s an incessant desire of his, to flip the switch and
\nwatch the light go on and off, or the fan, or the water in the bathtub or the
\nsink. We talk about it all the time: “We don’t want to waste energy. We don’t
\nwant to waste water.” <\/p>\n

But sometimes I let him stand at the sink with his hands
\nunder the water flowing from the faucet, and I watch his delight. And it
\ndoesn’t seem like a waste.<\/p>\n

I’ve written recently about our hopes to live a more simple
\nlife, a life with less stuff, a life with less waste (see “Too Much Stuff<\/a>” and
\n“What I’m Reading: Serve God, Serve the Planet<\/a>“). And I mean it. But I want to
\nmake sure that we retain that sense of wonder, that visceral appreciation for
\nbeauty and delight. I think about the fact that we, somewhat routinely, spend
\nmoney on artwork. It serves no practical purpose. The money could be used to
\nfeed children somewhere. And yet the paintings bring us joy and
\nremind us of grace. <\/p>\n

It makes me think about a story from the Gospels: <\/p>\n

While Jesus was in
\nBethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with
\nan alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he
\nwas reclining at the table.<\/i><\/p>\n

 When the
\ndisciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they
\nasked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money
\ngiven to the poor.”<\/i><\/p>\n

Aware of this, Jesus
\nsaid to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful
\nthing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always
\nhave me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for
\nburial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the
\nworld, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. (Matthew 26:6-13)<\/i><\/p>\n

Now I don’t mean to say that our artwork or William’s
\ndelight in the kitchen sink are the same as Jesus’ preparation for burial. But
\nI think there’s a connection nevertheless. William is wasting water, I suppose,
\nwhen he stands at the sink. I’m wasting money when I buy Peter a painting for
\nhis birthday. But perhaps there is a place for such waste. A declaration that joy
\nand beauty, as immeasurable as they might be, are nonetheless worthy of our time,
\nour money, our attention. A simple life with worthwhile wastefulness. That’s my
\ngoal. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William, as usual, stood on his tiptoes to turn the light on at the bottom of the stairs. He then reached up again to turn it off. “William,” I said, in my warning voice. “You can turn it off one time but then it needs to stay off.” He nodded. “Waste energy.” It’s an incessant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\nWorthwhile Wastefulness - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/07\/worthwhile-wastefulness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Worthwhile Wastefulness - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"William, as usual, stood on his tiptoes to turn the light on at the bottom of the stairs. 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}