SEEING THE EXTRAORDINARY

Month: July 2021

  • Enough

    If we grew up in church, we have heard the same Bible stories so often we tend to tune them out.  They become like the teacher on Charlie Brown.  We hear where the Pastor will be preaching from and draw our conclusions – we know the end of the story, so we fail to hear the lesson.  We forget that God’s Word is alive and active.  We miss the teaching because we have made up our minds we know the story.  It becomes all “blah” and no blessing.  Today’s scripture is familiar – so familiar most people, even those who haven’t been in church for a long time, would know.  We reference it as the feeding of the 5,000.  We know what happens – Jesus feeds 5,000.  But there is so much more going on than bread and fish.  And we miss it because we think we know the story.  May God open our hearts, minds, and eyes to receive even more from his message to us.  

    Matthew 14:13-21

    You may be thinking – this is exactly what I remembered it to be.  I want to think of it from a different perspective this morning.  Let’s put ourselves in the sandals of the disciples for just a moment.  They are with Jesus, he has heard devastating news.  They have had to do one of the most difficult things in their walk with Jesus.  They have had to bury Jesus’ friend, his cousin, his fellow worker in the kingdom.  They have buried John the Baptist.  And they have to tell Jesus what has happened.  What a devastating time for Jesus.  He needed to grieve.  He needed time to process this.  So he went to be alone.  

    He pulls up in his boat and is greeted by a crowd of people.  The disciples likely thought about how long of a day this had already been and how they just wanted to go away.  But Jesus saw differently.  He saw a group of people who needed to be loved.  It says he had compassion on them.  He saw people he wanted to help and spend time walking alongside.  He saw children.  And so, Jesus did what Jesus does.  He loved on them.  He reminded them of their worth.  He showed them a different side of the Kingdom.  He brought life to this crowd that was so starving for real life.  

    It was evening.  They are getting hungry.  The disciples have likely huddled together and realized it was time to wrap up this party.  They decide it is time to send them all home.  They need to go get themselves some food.  And Jesus says something most interesting – “you give them something to eat.”  This is one of the more interesting commands of Jesus to me.  He tells the disciples to give this huge crowd of people something to eat – don’t send them away.  Don’t try to take up a collection.  Don’t do anything but feed them.  

    The Scriptures don’t give us a time factor.  So we are just told the story.  But I want us to use a bit of holy imagination, if you will.  Jesus is talking to his trusted 12 – the guys who have walked with him and heard him speak.  They have seen Jesus at work.  And now Jesus is asking something of them.  He wants them to give the crowd something to eat.  The command is overwhelming.  The task is monumental.  I can only imagine how they were trying to figure out how this was going to happen.  They likely were trying to work out the numbers.  If there are this many people and they need this much to feed each, then we need this much to make this happen.  Imagine asking Judas how much was in the box (and probably less than what they thought).  Judas would have let them know real quick there wasn’t enough for all of that.  Plus there is a time factor.  They can’t just run down to the store.  No one has this supply of bread on hand.  Maybe everyone could take a bite – a sample – just enough so they don’t starve out here.  It had to be a confusing and troubling few moments.  I wonder how long Jesus let them try to figure it out before he just took over.  

    Here’s the deal – they saw impossibility – they saw scarcity – they saw the lack of resources – they saw all the reasons this was not possible.  Those 12 knew this was simply impossible.  There wasn’t enough money or time or people.  This was ridiculous and the command seems preposterous.  But not to Jesus.  Had anyone asked Jesus what he would do?  Had they asked him for guidance?  All I hear is the limitations.  They saw what little they had and it wasn’t enough – so they gave up.  But Jesus doesn’t work by our economy.  Jesus works by a whole different system.  Jesus works from the heavenly economy of enough.

    The heavenly economy reminds us of a few things – 

    When God is the center of it all, there is enough.  We live in a land of abundance, yet we are starving.  We hoard what we have because we have been frightened there would never be enough.  People steal and take and selfishly hold onto because of this idea of not enough.  We have more than we need but we live in a world of never enough.  There will never be enough.  

    We cannot earn enough money.  We cannot get enough recognition.  We cannot achieve enough accolades.  We cannot be enough.  We never have enough.  We never feel we are enough.  It is every man for himself – look out for yourself because no one else will.  Take what you can before someone else does.  When is enough actually enough?  -Never as long as the focus is inward.  Enough will only ever be enough when we follow God.  In his Kingdom, there is always enough.  

    Jesus gave them all something to eat that day – there was more than enough because HE was at the center of it.  He is enough.  And when we follow Christ – we are enough too.  He has provided all we need to be all he has called us to be.  He has filled us with good things.  We are overflowing with gifts and possibilities.  It may not be what we would imagine.  It doesn’t look like the achievements of this world.  It looks like serving our Creator – with all we are and all we have – and that’s enough.  

    YOU are enough.  We cannot wait until… we have enough money, time, resources, gifts, training, skills.  Sometimes, Jesus simply asks us to see differently – we have enough and we are enough.  We are loved beyond measure.  We are children of the Most High God.  We are called God’s beloved.  We are welcomed into the family.  We are given a seat at the table.  There is an abundance at God’s feast.  And all are welcomed.  We cannot be good enough or do enough good things.  We simply are invited because we are enough – God can take care of the rest.  Follow Christ – there is room for you too!

  • I Can’t Hear You

    I am learning that as years go by, I am having difficulty hearing.  It’s not that I am getting older, of course.  It is just something that seems to be happening.  I notice it most at home.  I am told by my children that the TV is loud – seems perfectly normal to me.  When Wendy talks to me, if she is not in front of me, I have no idea what she is saying.  I foresee our future of – what did you say?  The good news for me is she doesn’t always hear me either.  So we end up speaking louder than normal and then she tells me to stop yelling.  At first, I remind her she couldn’t hear me.  And then, because we have been married so long, I just move on. I will lose this argument.

    Our world is filled with lots of noise, though.  And it seems that we invite more and more noise into our lives.  We constantly have something going.  We are rarely in silence and when we are, it seems so awkward.  Silence seems out of place and something that can even be a bit – scary.  So we put it earbuds so we can fill our heads with something, anything that can break the quiet.  And we wonder why we can’t hear God?

    I have studied the Bible for quite a while and for me, God seems to break it down to two main themes.  These themes are repeated over and over again throughout scripture.  From the Old Testament commands to the teachings of Jesus to the writings of the apostles – these themes are on repeat.  They are on repeat because they are both important and also challenging.  If we, as God’s people, got them the first time, we wouldn’t have to hear them again.  But we are often stubborn, hard-headed and defiant – so God has to keep reminding us.  And I’m glad he does.  So what are the themes?  Love God, love others.  We cannot adequately love others without first loving God.  We cannot truly love God if we do not love others.  They go together and should be a huge driver in our lives.  They should give us direction.  But here’s the thing – both require listening.  

    How do we really love God if we do not listen to him?  How do we know where to go and what to do if we are not learning from him?  How do we know the direction if we cannot hear the Master?  If we are not listening, we will get lost in the chaos of this world.  We will find ourselves struggling for clarity.  We will get off track.  

    And to really love others, we must be willing to hear them.  We cannot know their needs without listening.  We cannot know their struggles without hearing their stories.  We cannot truly love someone we never listen to.  I am not talking about just physical hearing – but a connection that allows for more than a 5 second interaction.  So many misunderstandings happen between us and God and us and others because we have not actually heard them.  

    Texting and messaging doesn’t help either.  It is hard to read emotions and what is really going on in a text.  I am a fan of texting, by the way.  Sometimes I just need the facts – just give me the things I need to know.  But if we really want to get to know someone, we cannot simply text.  We need to hear them – really spend time with them.  And God – he does texting too – except he gave us all his texts ahead of time.  We just need to read them.  They are all contained in the Bible.  But to really get it, we must spend time with God.  Reading about God is not the same as spending time with God.

    The writings of James are among the most direct.  They are straightforward and help us to put into practice many of the things we read in the scriptures.  It is a very practical book – and if you are needing to feel more humble, this is the book to come back to.  Today’s scripture comes from James 1:19-21.

    19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

    This scripture is teaching us the importance of listening.  We are told to be quick to listen and slow to speak.  By the way, those go together.  If you are talking, you are not listening.  Sometimes, we can be talkers so much that we never actually hear anything.  And if we do listen, it is that we are listening just to talk.  We hear what the other is saying but have already formed our response before their sentence is even finished.  It reminds me of the kid in school that raises his hand and almost jumps out of his seat to answer something before the question is even complete.  We don’t often fully hear because we are so anxious to say something.  And talking has caused more problems than most of us would care to discuss.  Listening with our mouths closed hasn’t caused near the problems – it actually usually solves them.  

    When my kids were little, that was a lesson that came hard.  One of my girls really struggled – she couldn’t listen because she just had to speak.  I couldn’t even finish a sentence before she was already talking.  It got her in lots of trouble.  Thankfully she has grown up to become a much better listener.  But it’s hard.  Talking is our first response.  We want to create noise.  And sometimes our noise is harmful and very painful.  Sometimes quiet is the answer.  We may even find we have much less anger when we can simply keep our mouths closed and our ears open – without judgment.  

    Ok – so the answer is to be quick to listen and slow to speak and slow to get angry.  Sounds great – now go and do.  If only it were that easy.  I appreciate the gifts of God’s Word – but we must put them into practice.  And practice is exactly what it takes.  This doesn’t always come naturally.  This is something we must work towards.  This is a goal we work towards with constant focus. 

    Here are a few quick tips that may help us to hear – God and others.

    -Practice the pause.  Before we speak, pause.  Just pause for a moment.  We often rush to say something and in the rush, words come out that should have stayed in.  And once they are out, they are out.  Pause for a moment and consider what you are about to say.  Is this helpful, kind, loving?  Would this be pleasing to God?  If not, just don’t.  Leave it alone.  Smile and move forward.  

    -Measure it according to God’s standards.  This is one of my ‘go-to’ scriptures – not because I always follow this – but because it gives me a measure – something to consider about what I may say or think.  It is contained in Philippians 4:8-9

    8 Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

    If we use this as a guide, that may cut out some of the things we say.  If we think on these things, the words we produce will come from this source.  

    -Find the Quiet.  God is often heard most clearly in the quiet.  Sure, he can speak above the noise.  Yes, he can be found in the middle of our lives.  But if we really want to hear him – if we really desire to have a relationship with him, we must learn to be still, quiet, silent.  Hearing God will help guide us in the right direction.  It will also help us as we struggle with anger or any other issue.  

    Listening is hard.  Talking is way too easy.  Capturing ourselves in the noise and chaos may be ways of avoiding what God is trying to tell us.  What might you do differently to be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.  We just might find God has a lot to say when we listen.