Hi Friends:
At church this past Sunday, we heard the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand with just a few simple pieces of food (Matthew 14:13-21). I love this miracle. It is one of the few things that appears in all four gospels. A few brief reflections upon Jesus giving the command to his disciples to feed the crowds:
1) The reaction of the disciples resonated with me--"How can we feed them? Look at what little we have! We don't have the resources we need! We don't have the necessary infrastructure or the skills to get this done! This is impossible!" Does any of that sound familiar?
2) Jesus' direction was clear--"You feed them." Jesus knew where they were and he knew what time of day it was. The disciples weren't telling him anything new. Yet the command was the same--take care of them. You feed them.
3) The scarcity of what they had yielded to the abundance that resulted from their act of faith.
Now, we are about to all launch into a new school year under very unusual circumstances. Circumstances that leave us feeling inadequate and wondering whether or not we will be able to pull it off. For many of us, we are facing a combination of challenges; any one of which would be enough to keep us up at night. Yet our mission remains the same.
The teaching from this gospel message is clear. Offering what we have in service to others in the name of our Lord--regardless of how small we think it might be--will be blessed and will yield abundance.
Try not to lose sight of this reality. We know the circumstances that we are in--no one is denying that they are challenging. However, as leaders, we need to be reminded and remind others of the abundance that results from consistent acts of faith.
With blessings,
David+
