The Link Between Zero Waste and Prosperity 6

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Ironically, the diligent virtuous woman of Proverbs Chapter 31 verses 10 to 31 worked smart and hard to own and maintain a vineyard in addition to running a home efficiently and managing a fashion business profitably. Unlike the lazy young man devoid of understanding, the diligent virtuous woman was enriched and had property to leave to her children and children’s children. The young man unfortunately destroyed what he was blessed with through waste while the virtuous woman built wealth by adopting a zero waste policy and attitude. Whatever free time she had was ploughed into and invested in her fashion business while the profit from the fashion business was ploughed into owning and maintaining a vineyard. She did not fritter time in idleness, gossip, sleep and slumber. Everything she touched owned was always invested and not wasted.

Time is also a major resource that should never be wasted. Great examples of great investors of time include the Lord Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, the diligent and virtuous woman of Proverbs Chapter 31 verses 10 to 31, the biblical Joseph, Daniel, and Nehemiah as well as the prophetess Anna who spent nights and days in the temple fasting and praying. Significantly, Anna had no children to labor for in prayers yet she spent quality time praying for the manifestations of the plans and purposes of God for humanity. That time could have been spent by Anna in idle chatter and gossip. After all some of the widows described in the book of 1^st Timothy engaged in such trifles for which they were cautioned. But Anna chose to invest that time in the service of God for kingdom purposes.

What a person does with time either amounts to investment of time and resources or frittering of time and resources in unprofitable ventures. Be proactive – a great way to invest time. When you are proactive, you will plan ahead of time and prepare for contingencies. Contingencies will not take you by surprise and have you shopping for time to come up with solutions to the contingencies. But when you are proactive, you would have prepared for the contingency and would simply implement the solutions when the contingencies show up.

Procrastination is also a way of wasting resources because as you procrastinate on a task, the task does not get accomplished. So if it is a tear, any repair work, the tear or damaged part gets worse and ultimately you end up expending more energy and deploying additional resources to accomplish the task. If the young man had cared for his vineyard when he should have; weed the vineyard, fix cracks in the wall as they showed up, the vineyard would not have been taken over by weeds and the wall would not have broken down.

If it is information that is required to take an urgent decision, procrastination keeps you ignorant and indecisive and of course the decision is not taken and what ought to be done urgently is not done. For instance, can you imagine what would have happened if Joseph procrastinated on securing the surplus food resources from the bountiful harvests; some or all of the food would have rotted and there would have been no food during the seven years of famine. If the widow of the indebted prophet had procrastinated, her sons would have gone into debt bondage. If blind Bartimaeus had procrastinated to call on Jesus and assumed that Jesus would pass through that place at a later date, he would have remained blind. Procrastination is not only the thief of time, it is the forerunner to waste and destruction and poverty; it is also a great satanic tool for activating waste, poverty and destruction.

Significantly, procrastination is not only physical but also mental and spiritual especially spiritual and instructively, spiritual procrastination is the forerunner to mental and physical as well as other forms of procrastination. For instance, when we fail to activate and walk in a loving and fervent relationship with God, we lose the grace to receive myriad blessings from God such as the grace for divine wisdom, sure guidance from the Holy Spirit to accomplish divine purpose and live truly fulfilled lives.

Adopt a zero waste policy and attitude and see what transformations, surplus and abundance will come your way in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.

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The Link Between Zero Waste and Prosperity 5

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

Some Examples of Waste

Hiring a supposedly professional to implement a project and the professional turns out not to be as knowledgeable as s/he claimed to be, lacks the necessary expertise, is incompetent and does a shoddy job that leaves you having to start all over again; expending additional and much more resources than you would have expended on the project. Resources that could have been ploughed elsewhere to further expand resources and your wealth has to be reinvested into a project that would have cost less.

The biblical Joseph knew exactly what to do to mitigate the seven years of famine. Though the bountiful harvests were plenty and the saved up surplus was immeasurable and beyond counting, none of it was wasted. Everything was processed and stored safely. One of the ways to ensure zero waste was that food resources collected in farms around a particular city were stored in that city. The food resources were not moved farther – to prevent loss, damage; in addition to saving op on resources that would have been used in moving them farther.  It was pointless diverting resources that would be required elsewhere in moving goods farther from the fields where they were produced and from the people who produced them. Besides when famine came, the inhabitants of those areas would easily move to their nearby cities to access food resources without journeying to far away places. The risk of accidents was also minimized greatly.

Additionally, and this is really significant. Joseph traveled round the country not for the fun of travel but to carry out an assessment of facilities required to store the surplus harvests. In today’s business terminology, that would be referred to as a feasibility study -  a know what is required, what is on ground and what else to access and how access it, who to partner and work with. That way, you avoid wastes and losses and do not duplicate resources and efforts needlessly.

Not knowing what you own as well as the value of what you own is an example of great waste. For example, the young man described in Proverbs Chapter 24 verses 30 to 34 as devoid of understanding owned a vineyard; significantly a walled vineyard, implying that he owned great property – land to plant a vineyard – vines to process wine out of and sell to other people, a secure vineyard walled around for security from predators yet the young man had absolutely no understanding of what he owned, the value of what he owned so he allowed the property alongside the economic resources in it to go to seed.

The Link between Zero Waste and Prosperity 4

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The Apostle Paul was greatly used of God to harvest souls for the kingdom; great harvests in different geographical locations, cities, towns and villages. As geographically far apart as these places were from each other, Paul managed to stay very close to the people despite the fact that they very fast methods of communication and transport of the 21^st century were lacking in the days of Paul.

How did he achieve such great feat?  Paul had a great audience and he did not for once neglect them. Paul secured his spiritual and physical harvests through constant communication with the people. He always communicated with them, had great words for them, prayed for them and encouraged them through the letters he sent to them through human couriers on a regular basis. An insightful perusal of the Pauline epistles (Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, reveal Paul’s great care and concern for the bountiful harvests God gave to him. Paul could have chosen to ignore them and move on; after all he was working in other mission fields and had raised leaders in those Churches. Yet Paul maintained constant communication of love, care, concern and compassion with the people God gave to him. He is a great study in securing spiritual and physical harvests, as well as a manual for sustaining Church growth. In essence, Paul consolidated on every success and in the process had lasting success.