“I have too much to do and too little time.”
This phrase is something anyone who knows me will recognize as a regular litany coming from me. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling this way, though I am quite sure there are many more people who bear this universal challenge with more fortitude and less verbosity than I tend to manage.
The Ration Book, an artifact from the World War II era, reminds us of a time when the idea of too much to do and too little time (not to mention resources) took on depths of meaning that only those who experienced it can truly understand. For those of you who slept through your history classes, Ration Book coupons were required throughout the second world war to buy the supplies that were scarce, from sugar to gasoline. My old-time radio station even played a vintage commercial the other day where the spokesman urged housewives to save their used grease to turn in for making rubber! Households planted Victory Gardens to reduce the load on agricultural resources. The public was provided with toll-free numbers to contact in order to learn pointers about canning. There was so little to go around, it became everyone’s job to make sure nothing was wasted.
Like a country fighting a global-wide war on multiple fronts, each of us has only so many resources with which to accomplish what we feel is required of us in this life, whether that be work goals, family responsibilities, maintaining our households, or writing a blog! The choices we make every day determine how much we have available for the next thing we have to do. If we don’t prioritize well, we may wind up using all our resources on things that really don’t matter too much in the grand scheme of things.
Making the effort to map out what we do and why we do it might just give us an insight into better resource management. We should create our own Ration Book, making sure the items on our to-do list that are really important actually get done. And shouldn’t God and His goals be at the top of our resource and to-do list?
I am thankful as I reflect on the struggles and sacrifices that were required during World War II that God alone has no Ration Book. His resources are limitless. The love and support He has to offer are without end. We can dip into the truths of His word and go to Him in prayer as often and as long as we like, and we will never run out of “coupons.” The armor of God that Paul encourages us to put on will never fail us. And, many times, God’s love provides us with resources we didn’t realize we had in order to accomplish His will.
In this finite reality, only our ability to reach toward the Infinite through the intercession of Christ makes it possible for us to expand our Ration Books so that His love may be experienced by non-believers through us.
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