By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.
-Mark 6:35-43
We often speak of ‘thinking outside the box’. By thinking outside the box, we become more innovative, creative, and more cutting edge. I sincerely believe in all these things.
I like to consider myself an outside the box thinker.
But sometimes thinking ‘outside the box’ gets us into trouble.
That’s the problem in the above text. The discipes couldn’t keep their thoughts ‘inside the box.’ They kept thinking outside the box. Their response to the directive of Jesus was to think, “if only”.
If only we had more bread we could obey your command and feed this huge crowd of people.
When Jesus commands us to do something, we often say the same thing.
If only:
We had more supply.
We had more money.
We had more help.
We had more talent.
We had more training.
We had more connections.
We had more time.
We had more education.
If only. If only. If only.
If only we had something ‘outside the box’, we could obey the commands of Jesus.
But if we could keep our thinking ‘inside the box‘, we would easily become witnessess to the power of God. When the disciples finally trusted Jesus with the little that they had, a miracle happened right before their eyes.
If only the people of God actually trusted Him for outside the box provision by staying faithful with what was inside the box.
What amazing things we would see.
If only.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 5:27 am and is filed under Leadership, Discipleship.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”
But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”
They said to him, “That would take eight months of a man’s wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”
“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”
When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”
Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to set before the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish.
-Mark 6:35-43
We often speak of ‘thinking outside the box’. By thinking outside the box, we become more innovative, creative, and more cutting edge. I sincerely believe in all these things.
I like to consider myself an outside the box thinker.
But sometimes thinking ‘outside the box’ gets us into trouble.
That’s the problem in the above text. The discipes couldn’t keep their thoughts ‘inside the box.’ They kept thinking outside the box. Their response to the directive of Jesus was to think, “if only”.
If only we had more bread we could obey your command and feed this huge crowd of people.
When Jesus commands us to do something, we often say the same thing.
If only:
We had more supply.
We had more money.
We had more help.
We had more talent.
We had more training.
We had more connections.
We had more time.
We had more education.
If only. If only. If only.
If only we had something ‘outside the box’, we could obey the commands of Jesus.
But if we could keep our thinking ‘inside the box‘, we would easily become witnessess to the power of God. When the disciples finally trusted Jesus with the little that they had, a miracle happened right before their eyes.
If only the people of God actually trusted Him for outside the box provision by staying faithful with what was inside the box.
What amazing things we would see.
If only.
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 18th, 2010 at 5:27 am and is filed under Leadership, Discipleship. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.