What’s the Low Hole In Your Bucket and What Are You Doing About It?

Have you ever heard of Liebig’s Law of the Minimum?

No, it’s not a law to enable soft-on-crime “prosecuting attorneys” to let seemingly obvious criminals off with no bail and/or no charges. It’s simply a principle developed in the early 1800’s in agricultural science that states “growth is controlled not by the total of resources available, but by the scarcest resource (ie:limiting factor).” In other words, if one of the essential plant nutrients is deficient, plant growth will be poor even when all other essential nutrients are abundant.

As an illustration, a plant could be attempting to grow in an area that had ample nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. However, if there is no iron available, the plant’s growth will be limited. The plant will not flourish and will not produce fruit in abundance.

I read about Liebig’s law in an article about evaluating and improving your property for whitetail deer hunting. Liebig’s Law of the Minimum is nicknamed by some as “lowest hole in the bucket” and I think it applies to many situations other than agriculture. Nothing can be added to the bucket until the lowest hole is plugged.

For example, a fly fishermen can buy a new thousand-dollar fly rod and reel, but it won’t help him catch fish unless he knows how to properly cast with it. Even if he has that expensive new rod and he can cast well, it won’t help him catch fish if he doesn’t know how to read the water, determine where the fish are, manage the drift, mend his line…or match the hatch. No matter how much he spends on gear, other factors will limit his ability to catch fish in abundance.

Of course, I’m only speaking of factors that he has control over. But in any case, he would be wise to consider the low hole or holes in his bucket and to work to plug those holes before he drops a lot of money on new gear or books a trip to New Zealand.

I wish I had understood this principle earlier in my life. Seems to me I used a “principle of averages” more in my life, and now I see that can be detrimental—especially in relationships. Now don’t forget this is coming from a guy who has been divorced twice. I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of that now. I’ll save that for some evening around a campfire while sipping bourbon. (It just dawned on me that could be a version of telling spooky stores in the dark at halloween time.)

I used to think my marriage should be healthy because on the average I’m a pretty good guy. However, what I’ve learned from both personal experience, as well as mentoring several divorced guys, is that identifying and working on the low holes in my bucket would have been more helpful than building a case that overall or on the average I’m a pretty good spouse/dad/Christian.

A guy can be a faithful, hard working bread winner. He can be handsome and a great gift giver —but if he doesn’t spend quality time with his wife, for example, and he puts all his hobbies and pastimes above spending time with her, their relationship is heading south and unfortunately she may be looking for a way out.

This guy has a low hole in his bucket and he doesn’t realize it or he chooses to ignore it. Marriage and deep relationships don’t operate based on an accounting balance sheet. They operate on an emotional level where a low hole in the relational bucket can drain (or cancel out) the positive aspects.

This got me thinking about the most important of all relationships —my relationship with God. First of all, I have a relationship with God because I trusted in Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord. After my first divorce, God opened my eyes and I found myself at a crossroads. I could either continue to live life my way or I could choose THE WAY which is to trust that Jesus paid my sin debt as an undeserved, unearned gift and to move forward in love and gratitude by submitting to him as my Lord (Boss). BTW…Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

Since I treasure this eternal relationship above all else, I started to evaluate whether I have some low holes in that relational bucket. My mind went directly to asking “how much quality one-on-one time do I spend with God?” I desire an intimate relationship with God and if we only meet at church once week could I honestly call that intimacy?

I also thought about getting to know God better. After all, when most friendships develop they’re usually focussed on getting to know one another better. Seems to me that God provided the scriptures as an important tool in getting to better know Him (and ourselves).

My experience has been that it takes sacrifice and discipline to spend time getting to know God better, but it’s so rewarding—and so God-honoring. Seems to me every worthwhile relationship requires an investment in time and self sacrifice. As inspirational writer, Ann Voskamp put it, “You love as well as you are willing to be inconvenienced.”

I’m also amazed at how often when I read the Bible I see things I haven’t seen before. I love this comment found in Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” And 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT), “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.” (And some of you may have thought it was just an old, “outdated” book.)

I was wondering: Have you ever thought about what is the lowest hole in your relational buckets especially the big three —with God, with your spouse, with your family? Do you think it’s time to get past the rationalization that being on the average a pretty good guy is all that is necessary? After all, how is that working for you —really? Maybe it’s time to get real and to get humble and to start patching some holes in your buckets. Hey, after all, what could it hurt?

And as always, you can share your thoughts—the good, the bad, and the ugly ones—on the FATC FORUM…and feel free to give me a call if you would ever want to get together to discuss some good bible studies or ways to patch the low holes in your relational buckets.