Less Yields More

“Less is an opportunity for more.”

Loren Thornburg

Less usually only sounds better when we’re talking about debt, bills or things on our to do list.  We don’t often wish for less money or fewer possessions.  Yet, something happens when we don’t have what we are used to having; we are forced to create from what we have.  I recently endured a very constricted diet.  Without the flavors I am used to enjoying I was forced to find new ways to create a tasty meal.  What I found was spices and flavors that I had been missing out on. It's like that meal you never would have made except that it's all that you had and it turned out so good you made it again even when you had more.  It made me wonder how many things are created and inventions invented out of having less. Less forces us to get creative in more ways than our meals.  The hard seasons in our lives, when it feels like things are being taken away, force us to grow in ways we wouldn’t have otherwise.  They cause us to develop relationships that may not have been so deep and point us to new ways of doing things that we wonder why we ever did it any other way.  Whatever less you find yourself in look for the more that’s waiting to be found.  

“… My dear child, don’t shrug off God’s discipline, but don’t be crushed by it either.  It’s the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects.  God is educating you; that’s why you must never drop out.  He’s treating you as dear children.  This trouble you’re in isn’t punishment; it’s training, the normal experience of children...But God id doing what is best for us, training us to live God’s holy best.  At the time, discipline isn’t much fun.  It always feels like it’s going against the grain.  Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.”

Hebrews 12:4-11 Message

Discipline is not a word we like, as it often suggests restrictions and constrictions.  When we hear discipline we assume there will be less of what we want.  Although that may be true, more often the less is making room for more of what really matters.  Discipline is training that corrects, molds and perfects. It comes in all shapes, sizes and forms.  Often we see hard times or a lessening in provision and we associate that with punishment.   We look around and think it’s punishment because we don’t see other people facing the hard things we are, but in fact hard times and discipline are normal.  Everyone has them they just look different.  God really is doing what is best for us.  Do you believe that?  You have to believe that as one missionary, Adoniram Judson did.  In the face of many trials he said, “If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings.” Trust His infinite love and mercy for you.  Whatever suffering, discipline or hard time you face He is doing something in you and through you that is yielding more than you can see in this season of less.