Today finds me blogging as a #digidisciple over at Big Bible.
Come over and have a look. It’s a great initiative of a broad spectrum of Christians blogging about faith in digital space.
That’s enough
•July 25, 2011 • Leave a Comment
What’s not to like about a picnic with friends? A nice leisurely afternoon enjoying the fresh air, and good finger food.
Yet that is not quite the situation Jesus and his disciples find themselves in, in this story. The people have gone out to listen to Jesus speaking, and had spent so much time there that now it’s getting late and they’ve got no food. The disciples want to send the people on their way, Jesus tells them not to do that, but to do something about the situation themselves.
I’ve blogged about Mark’s version of this story already this year You Do Something.
It can be so easy to pass the buck, let someone else pick up the pieces of a situation, but Jesus challenges us to do something.
I’m not sure about you, but so often I’m with the disciples, ‘what have I got that can be of any use?’ ‘Look what a small thing I have for such a large task.’
Jesus response to that? To smile slowly, and say
bring it here, give it to me
In Jesus hands, five loves and two fish are not just enough – but an abundance. They meet the need and some.
So what have we got that we’re doing nothing with – because we don’t think it’s enough? We think the little we have is too small, too insignificant. But Jesus says to us,
bring it here, give it to me
and in his hands, what we have to bring to him is enough. He can take it and use, and bless others with it.
So don’t worry that you have nothing to offer, that what you have is not enough.
Bring it to God, give it to him – and watch what he can do with it.
Lord,
I feel insignificant,
inadequate,
lacking –
but,
I offer to you
what I have,
and ask you to take it,
and use it,
to meet the needs you see
So big…
•July 21, 2011 • Leave a CommentIt never ceases to amaze me, the size of seeds when they come out of packets, and the size of plant they grow in to. The cabbage seeds are like a pin head, yet they manage to produce this:
Or even more so, if you think of tree:
The size of the end result does not depend on the size of the seed it grows from.
Jesus tells a story something like this.
31Jesus told them another story: The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a farmer plants a mustard seed in a field. 32Although it is the smallest of all seeds, it grows larger than any garden plant and becomes a tree. Birds even come and nest on its branches.
33Jesus also said:
The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a woman mixes a little yeast into three big batches of flour. Finally, all the dough rises.
We may feel that what we have to offer is something very small, but that doesn’t matter, as long as we are willing to use it, God can make it grow into something far beyond what it is in our hands.
Do you have a small seed? If you are willing to plant it, who knows what it will become, how big it will grow – what shelter it will provide for others, that they may find rest and in their turn grow.
Do you have a small amount of yeast? Are you willing to mix it into the dough, that the dough may increase? Who knows how many people that dough will go on to feed?
The size of what we have is not important. What matters is being willing to use it, to give it to God and allow him to accomplish his work with and through us.
So don’t worry about how little you’ve got. Don’t look at how small and insignificant your gifts seem, what little you feel you have to offer – look at God and what he can do – with the smallest seeds and the tiniest grains of yeast.
Lord
I am so small,
I feel so insignificant,
with nothing to offer.
Yet I look at seeds,
and trees,
and realise what you can do.
So I offer you
the seeds of my life,
that you may use them to make something big
for you.
