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Less is More
One of my favorite cookbooks for many years, which you would know if you saw its splattered and tattered pages, is the More-With-Less Cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. My copy is spiral bound and I've had to weave yarn through the wire to keep the pages in since the back cover let go long ago. The blurb on the book's front cover states that within you will find "suggestions by Mennonites on how to eat better and consume less of the world's limited food resources." The eating better part? Well, yes. Who doesn't love good food? And believe me, the recipes are great. Colorado Pie, Honey Mustard Chicken, Cranberry Blender Salad, and Six-Layer Dinner are just a few of our favorites. But I have to admit that my use of the recipes in this book have had more to do with conserving our own large family's resources than with conserving the world's. I'm happy if we've done that too, though! In any case, the idea that less can be more is one that resonates.
We see this in nature all the time. We weed the vegetable garden and thin out excess radishes, carrots, etc. to allow nearby plants to develop more fully. We prune fruit trees in hopes the trees will produce larger, better fruit. We deadhead flowers, plucking off spent blossoms, to direct the plant's energy into producing more blossoms. Less can be more.
In ancient times, Gideon started out to battle Midian with an army of 32,000, but the Lord told him his army was too large. The Lord recommended a selection process to whittle the army down to size, until eventually only 300 men were left.
The Lord told Gideon, "With these 300 men I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites. Send all the others home." (Judges 7: 7)
Starting out with an army of 32,000, and ending up with an army of 300? What did Gideon do? Argue with the Lord? Offer Him advice? (I suggest this as a possibility because it's one of my failings--offering the Lord advice about how He should solve problems. Ahem.) Did Gideon panic? Resign? Flee?
So Gideon collected the provisions and rams' horns of the other warriors and sent them home. But he kept the 300 men with him. (Judges 7: 8)
In a middle-of-the-night surprise attack that involved the blowing of rams' horns, the smashing of clay jars, and the brandishing of flaming torches, Gideon and his small army defeated the larger Midianite army that had been thrown into confusion by the unusual method of attack. Less can be more.
I would even go so far as to say that less is more when the Lord is involved.
The thing is, the Lord's methods are often unusual and counterintuitive. Honestly, the Lord's methods just don't make logical sense sometimes, which is why some highly logical people have trouble believing. The Lord's methods seem to defy nature. I mean, turn water into wine in a moment's time, feed 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, turn fishermen, tax collectors, and women of ill repute into disciples? It just doesn't make sense!
C. S. Lewis addresses this in depth in his book, Miracles, in which he explains that you don't have to give up science in order to accept Christianity. "In Science," he writes, "we have been reading only the notes to a poem; in Christianity we find the poem itself."
Over the years I've learned that less is more in regards to the table and the garden. In what new ways can I learn to trust the Lord that less is more? I've read the notes and I've read the poem, and will continue to read both, but I want to immerse myself in the poem.
Daye Phillippo
May 2017