The Inefficiency of God

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God is very inefficient.  That is His way.  He is inefficient to the point of being extravagant.  The Father of Jesus Christ is an extravagant, inefficient God.  In our western culture we are taught to count our pennies, hoard our resources, be disciplined in our expenditures, for our money and our abilities and our efforts will be the supplier of our needs.  But in God’s economy there is always more than enough to go around, just because you’re alive!

In the western economy, if I need food I go into a grocery store and pay a specific amount of money for specific items.  In God’s economy,  He might say, “Pay what you want, according to what you are able, and take whatever you need and desire.  There’s more than enough to go around.”  That’s our inefficient God.

II Corinthians 9:9  As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; He has given to the poor; His righteousness remains forever.

If God were efficient, every drop of rain would have an intended purpose; to water specific plants, quench the thirst of specific animals, or specific men.  If God were efficient, the only apples that would grow would either be used to grow other apple trees, or as food for others.  But that’s not the case, is it?  It rains, and so much water just washes downhill to the sea.  So much water just evaporates before it can accomplish anything.  So much water just soaks into soil that doesn’t grow anything useful.  So many apples just fall to the ground and rot and do or become nothing useful.

If God were efficient, the wind would only blow where it could be useful.  But that’s not the case.  The wind blows all over the globe, even where no one lives, even where it doesn’t accomplish any useful task.  It’s not blowing windmills, not pushing sailboats, not refreshing a human or animal.  If God were efficient, everything in creation would have a specific place and purpose and use, but that isn’t the case.

Matthew 5:45b   .. for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

Not very efficient.  Even the gift of His life and love, presented to us in the person of His son Jesus Christ was not very efficient.  If God were efficient, He would only bless those who love Him, and only when they are walking with Him.

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believes unto him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Now that’s just plain extravagant.  He loved the whole world?  I mean, He knew who would and wouldn’t believe, yet He loved everyone and everything.  He gave His only begotten son!  His only one!  God is committed to His extravagance, and has shown that He will give everything He is and has in order to perpetuate His inefficient, extravagant lifestyle.  You can be sure He will not withhold one single resource.

Romans 8:32  He that spared not His own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall He not by means of him also freely give us all things?

You see?  God is committed to His inefficient lifestyle.  He doesn’t invest His resources very wisely, does He?  He makes it rain where it produces no fruit.  He sent His son as a gift to die for people who would never accept the gift.  And even many of those who do receive the gift don’t use it.  And yet God keeps pouring it on, pouring it forth, pouring it out.

II Corinthians 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:

I grew up with 7 siblings, and we had to finish all the food on our plates, even if we weren’t hungry (or didn’t like what was cooked), because “people are starving in China.”  That’s being efficient!  Guilt will do that, make you very efficient.  But God has no guilt.  He just keeps pouring it on, even when no apparent results are produced.  He’s very inefficient in His giving, and very confident in His love for us.  And He asks us to be the same way!

Luke 6:38  Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down , and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom.  For with the same measure you mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

(First of all, the reason we are exhorted to give abundantly is so that we will be able to receive abundantly.  Not to earn it, but to increase our ability to receive it!)

Now, it’s that “running over” that’s so inefficient, don’t you think?  Think of carrying a big bowl of uncooked rice and it’s running over!  Everything that falls out of the bowl would be waste, wouldn’t it?  Very inefficient!  But what if it’s not waste?  What if it’s the way life is supposed to be….inefficient and extravagant?

Genesis 1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 

We can’t possibly eat it all!  And yet it’s all there for us to choose from.  God caused the earth to bring forth way more than we can possibly take advantage of.  And He did the same for us spiritually by means of the gift of the life of His son, Jesus Christ.

John 10:10b  …. I am come that they (who believe unto me) might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

You see, God says “might” because it’s always up to us whether or not we’re going to receive it.  And so, knowing that many will not receive it, God still made it “more abundantly” available!  Interesting that in Norwegian, the words “more abundantly” are  “i overflod,” literally, “in over flood!”  Very descriptive of inefficiency, wouldn’t you say?  Why would we need more life than we can handle?  Because God is just not very efficient, I’m telling you.  And what’s more, He wants us to be the same way!

Ephesians 5:1a   Be therefore imitators of God, as dear children….

There is the glory of God.  There is His pride and joy.  To have children who take after their Father!  Not miserly receivers and givers of the resources of God and of the earth, but abundant; no, more than abundant; extravagant, inefficient sharers of all the good that God has and is pouring down upon our heads and into our hearts.

Ephesians 3:20  Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, Unto Him be glory to the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen.

In Christ there is no tithe required.  That is a system preached and enforced by those who would exercise earthly authority over you and make their livings off of you …. a very ungodly way of living.  In Christ there is only abundance, both in receiving and in giving, and the absolute total freedom to do it how and when and why you choose.  No one can tell you how or how much to give, any more than they can make you receive!

II Corinthians 9:7  Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Through the work of Jesus Christ, and by means of his spirit within us, we are able to live like God; abundant, inefficient, extravagant pourers forth of the abundance we live in and receive into our own hearts.  There are no limits but the limits of God.  As God loves the whole world, let us be like Him and be inefficient in what we share out of our lives.
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