All the pressure is on to be efficient.

Hit the tickets on time. Get on top of AI. Don’t fall behind.

We’ve all heard that things can be either fast or good or cheap, but not two at once. Modern Manchester wants all three from you at the same time.

But not only is embracing inefficiency good for you—there’s an argument that it’s actually divine.

In the national law code that God gave to the people of Israel before Jesus came, he said this:

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. (Leviticus 19:9-10)

Deliberate inefficiency.

You see: you weren’t made simply to produce. That’s not who you are. You were made to receive God’s love and care for you, and to love and care for others in return.

You were made for relationships.

That’s why the endless grind to perfect efficiency in your life, your job, your calendar, feels so empty and soul-crushing. Because it is.

AIs are already far more efficient than any of us are. Let them be. They’re not people.

But you are a person.

And there’s huge wisdom to those words from Iron Age Israel: the unharvested edges of your life can be part of your love and care for others.

Inefficient calendars, conversations, spending and structure give you space to give to those who need it.

A long meal with friends is inefficient. Playing with your children is operationally suboptimal.

Walking someone home. Visiting your parents. Listening properly to a struggling friend. Teaching a junior colleague patiently instead of rushing ahead alone.

None of these things maximise output. But they are part of what human life is for.

Optimise life. Be inefficient.

And God commanding those farmers to be inefficient to give the poor, reflects his own inefficiency to give to you.

Because whoever you are reading this, however you’re feeling, whatever kind of a life you’ve lived: Jesus died for you and gave himself to forgive you.

He didn’t optimise that. The cross was not efficient. Jesus spilled his blood freely—even for people who reject him.

That’s what God did. That’s who God is.

And he gives this grace to you today through his Word, as we gather around it as the church.

Come gather with us and receive it this week:

In person in Manchester every Sunday.

Online from anywhere every Wednesday.