Feb. 11, 2024, column from the Amarillo Globe-News:

The wisdom of leaving a little extra alone

By Mike Haynes

                Most of the time, I didn’t have part-time jobs in high school – not away from home, anyway. I grew up on a ranch, so there was plenty to do helping Dad build fence or feed cattle.

One summer, I did put in some hours at a gas station that my Grandad John had bought, and I poured oil into the engines of a few Route 66 travelers. But my lesson about oil came one day when Grandad had me changing the oil on a ranch tractor.

In his younger days, he had been a dealer for Gulf Oil, so he knew more than your average rancher about motor oil viscosity and gasoline octane levels. What I remember, though, is simple.

As I held one of the old-style cans upside down, trying to drain every drop of oil into the engine, Grandad said, “That’s enough.” According to him, the oil companies included slightly more in the can than the amount printed on the label, and my effort to completely empty it was just wasting time. If I left a little in the can, the tractor still had plenty.

Many years later, another older man gave me similar advice. I was interviewing him for my master’s

thesis, a biography of the longtime editor of this newspaper, Wes Izzard, who had died several years before. My interview subject had been a friend of the editor.

I mentioned a book related to the newspaper’s history but apologetically said I had not read all of it yet. The editor’s friend told me emphatically that I should not waste time reading every page of a book when only a small part of it would help me in my research.

I suppose I’m a little obsessive when it comes to finishing a book that I start or watching a movie all the way through the credits, so I haven’t always followed the man’s suggestion. Maybe that’s why it took me almost to the time limit before I completed my master’s degree.

The older I get, though, the more I realize that our days on Earth are limited, and saving time – without cutting corners on quality or results – is wise.

The Bible certainly reminds us of the preciousness of time and that we should be responsible in using it.  Ephesians 5:15-16 and Psalms 90:12 are just two examples. But Leviticus 19:9-10 showed God’s Old Testament followers another reason not to be too zealous about completing everything 100 percent.

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”

Amarillo’s Washington Street Family Service Center, which offers temporary food and clothing assistance to people in need, presents that passage to encourage donors not to use all their resources on themselves or their families but to save some for others. It’s another simple lesson that’s at the heart of Christianity.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” Jesus said. “This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22: 37-39)

Leaving a drop of oil in the can or skipping unhelpful pages in a book can save time. More important, giving from our abundance can bless people.