I recently made a couple of Reese’s cakes for fundraisers. If you’re going to do any real kind of decorating on a cake you need to level your layers. When you do that you get cake scraps. I leveled four layers so I had a small container’s worth of these scraps. As I finished up with my cakes, I realized that I had a couple scoops of leftover peanut butter frosting as well as a small bowl of chocolate ganache.
What’s a person to do with those scraps and leftovers? Admittedly, sometimes I just eat them as they are. It’s a great way to taste your product. However, this time I did what any real baker would do – I turned them into cake pops. Crumble up the scraps, mix it with frosting, roll it in a ball, dip them in ganache and charge $2. Well, I didn’t charge any money but that’s how a bakery would do it. Waste not want not or something like that.
If you’re running a business, you need to make the most of your products. Finding a way to use elements that have no other purpose saves on waste and has the potential to make you money. This is similar to how car dealerships generally make more money on used cars. There’s more wiggle room to adjust prices when the value isn’t set. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Obviously, I’m oversimplifying but you get the idea.
I was thinking about this concept and how God works a little bit the same way. Notably, how he does such great work with our scraps or leftover bits that we didn’t think could be used. God doesn’t waste anything, and He uses people and weaknesses that we might not think about. I think about Samuel going to find a king among Jesse’s family (1 Samuel). David was the runt of the litter, so to speak. He was the youngest of the sons and wasn’t even present when Jesse was presenting his other sons. The older sons who appeared better suited for the job, were not. Can you imagine the initial reactions of, well, everyone present?
I think about how he used Rahab the “harlot” (Joshua chapter 2) to hide the Hebrew spies. How he used Gideon (Judges chapter 6) who the Bible says was of the weakest tribe and the least in his father’s house. Or there was the time the little boy offered his kid’s meal of five loaves and two fishes and Jesus fed thousands and then had food to spare.
The Bible is chock full of examples of God taking not enough, scraps, leftovers, weaknesses, runts and the like and making it into something amazing that advances His kingdom. The common thread in these examples is the person’s willingness to put aside the doubt or what might seem to be logical and simply allow themselves to be used by God.
In 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, Paul says, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.”
“The things that are not.” I love that part. God chooses the scraps. The used. The leftovers. The least. The bits that might be overlooked and thrown away. The things that are not.
I want to be clear that this doesn’t mean that we just sit back and wait for Him to do the work. In each of these examples the person had a very real action to take in spite of their weakness. In their fear, timidity, weakness, and general lack of resources is where God meets them, and miracles happen. He gets the glory. Faith is built in moments like these.
Friends, if you feel like you’ve got nothing to offer God, then you have everything to offer God. I promise He has been waiting for you to be brave enough to give Him your nothing. The choice is yours. Let Him turn your scraps into something of eternal value.
