Resourcefulness
IN 1894, Dr. Jose Rizal was in exile in Dapitan, a remote town in Mindanao in 1800, where he engineered a dam and waterworks with the help of his pupils. He built the waterworks with limited finance, inadequate tools, and meager materials using stones, castoff tiles, bamboos pipes, and mortar from burnt coral and he succeeded in giving good water system for Dapitan. Resourcefulness is “doing what we can with what we have, where we are,” says Theodore Roosevelt. Also, it is the ability to generate the resources necessary to accomplish a project.
The Filipinos embedded resourcefulness as we see it utilize in everyday life and various circumstances: improvised boats out of recycled materials made for people to cross flooded roads and ways; used cooking oils mixed with salt is used as light during brownouts; water lilies that block the flow of water results in rising flood become source of livelihood and materials for bags, baskets, furniture, slippers, and cheap organic fertilizer; and in difficult situations Filipinos find ways to triumph over and thrive.
The article, “Resourcefulness a Key to Success”, shares a powerful story of Sam Walton, the man behind WalMart superstores, who reached status as the secondrichest man in the world because he employed resourcefulness. Growing up during the Great Depression, Walton milked the family cow then bottled and sold the surplus. Later, he took control of the retail sales market by selling merchandise people could afford. He was also among the first to introduce a “profit sharing” plan for his employees, which greatly contributed to WalMart’s continuing success. Walton took what was already in existence, large retail stores, and figured out a way to improve upon the concept and bring it to small towns across America.
The Scriptures say, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” (Luke 16:1012). Consequently, God wants us to be good stewards of the resources he entrusts us and find ways to maximize for our good and benefit of others. Unlike the man who received the resources of one thousand coins but dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. He was called, “bad and lazy servant” and the money was taken away from him and given to the good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:1430). Hence, in all of your Godgiven resources, “do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” says John Wesley.