Do you ever just stop and look around? In the middle of your day, your commute, or your demands of life, do you ever suddenly stop and maybe pray for God to show you something? I’m doing that more, and noticing that He speaks to me and shows me something nearly every time.
Reflections on The Justice Conference 2014
Do you ever just stop and look around? In the middle of your day, your commute, or your demands of life, do you ever suddenly stop and maybe pray for God to show you something? I’m doing that more, and noticing that He speaks to me and shows me something nearly every time.
This particular time, as I was preparing for The Justice Conference Portland Simulcast, I got stuck – the best way one can get stuck – on Mark 6:36-42.
36 Send the people away, and let them go to the nearby farms and villages in order to buy themselves something to eat.”
How often do you pray when you learn of an oppression or adversity, “Lord, they seem so hungry for _____. Give them what they need today. Direct them to where they can find it and bless them as they go…” When we do this, we, in a sense, are doing what the disciples did. Telling Jesus what to do.
37 “You yourselves give them something to eat,” Jesus answered.
Jesus rebukes his friends, saying basically, I could…but I have a better idea. Look within yourselves. Dig deep for the faith you need; Look around for the resources I have already given you in order to meet that need.
They asked, “Do you want us to go and spend two hundred silver coins on bread in order to feed them?”
The disciples were speaking fluent sarcasm here. Do you really expect us to spend a fortune on these people?
38 So Jesus asked them, “How much bread do you have? Go and see.”
When they found out, they told him, “Five loaves and also two fish.”…
Jesus patiently answers with his own question, forcing them to take inventory on what they already have to give. When we see an urgent need before us, why not first ask, What do I already have right now? Take inventory of everything He has graciously given you (from your skill set and all you’ve learned over the years, to your free time, to the telling of your story of how he has redeemed you, to the practical giving of money from your bank account). All that may play a part in serving, meeting a need, or righting a wrong. “Go and see”.
39 Jesus then told his disciples to make all the people divide into groups and sit down on the green grass. 40 So the people sat down in rows, in groups of a hundred and groups of fifty.
41 Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish,
He took account of what was offered. He gathered it up – whatever it was. However much. Then he …looked up to heaven.
Looking up meant something different to me than the obvious gesture of prayer here. It was a reminder to look up from my everyday to-do’s, my self-centered agendas, my magnetic pull to social-media posting, and my device screen long enough to notice a bigger picture God may be attempting to show me. What if I looked and I listened to what was going on in front of me in the moment? Asking Him what His agenda is for me that day. Asking Him to place just the right people in my path? It kind of reminds me of the NBC show, “What Would You Do”. It awakens that desire in me to look up and to speak up. To sacrifice my ego, my comfort or my agenda if necessary, to help restore that “right-ness” where I’ve notice it’s gone off course.
It was what N.T Write spoke of so eloquently at the Justice Conference when he said “we are to celebrate God’s justice and judgement because it is God’s process of bringing order to all his creation”. I’m learning that this is not simple. It takes discipline, intentionality, practice and a “being-ok-with” not looking normal.
Bernice King, daughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King and world-renowned speaker, urged her listeners to take ownership when she said too many remain “aloof of their responsibility”. And I would add that it is not just our responsibility to act when we see our fellow man needing help, but also to be wide-eyed and prepared for all those quirky circumstances in which God will inevitably and so strategically place us.
Eugene Cho, Founder of One Days Wages, emphasized the importance of “the element of compassionate engagement. Empathy. The sharing of a meal.” He reminded us that “in all things Jesus did, he did it with intentionality.”
…and gave thanks to God.
And so, let’s thank Him for the resources we have and for those opportunities to bless people – even the ones that haven’t crossed our path yet! Thank him for that diploma that hasn’t been fully earned yet. Praise him for the funds that haven’t reached your checking account yet. The words he has yet to give you as you write your next song that will brighten the lives of many.
His disciples trusted him for a miracle. But they proved their trust with obedience by gathering what they could – even that tiny amount of fish and bread. And they probably tried not to laugh as they gave it to him.
He broke the loaves and gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people…(NLT says, “He kept giving”)
Jesus, once again, entrusts his followers with the giving, serving, & distributing of what was needed that day – to 5,000 men, their wives and children… probably over $15,000 in total. If we keep looking to him as our source, & trusting him for more when we can obviously see we’re running low, He will KEEP giving. What was the result?
42 Everyone ate and had enough. When Angel, my daughter, was three, she would have said, “I Satis-FIVE!”
Jesus could have broken the bread and multiplied the fish, and ran all by himself throwing food among the masses. But He chose to stay in his sovereign seat. And he still does…allowing us to be an active part in the blessing and serving of those he loves. Because:
· This is what brings Him the most glory
· This is how we, his followers, learn to trust Him for a miracle
· This is what ends up changing our hearts and thrusting us into that “sweet spot” of fulfilling our potential on this earth…and
· This is a picture of kingdom community, order and justice – each one of us, a crucial part of the spreading of the Kingdom of God by meeting the needs of those he places before us.
*Scripture is taken from the Good News Translation
*Photo credit to this site
