I never really had a super hard time obeying my parents when I was younger. I was a suck up in all aspects of the phrase and that category included my parents…most of the time.  I think it’s funny when older people tell little kids to do something and they don’t really understand. For instance, someone might tell a kid, “Tell me the extent of your knowledge about the lupus canus.” Well, duh, the kid would just stand there in awe. Josh likes to do this. We were talking about voices matching faces and I shut my eyes and said, “Talk.” After a few minutes of silence, I opened one eye and Josh was sitting across the table with big eyes and an open mouth. He froze under pressure. He needed something to talk about.

Jesus feeds the five thousand. You probably all know the gist of the story but I’m going to paraphrase it because it’s the details that amaze me.  (Luke 9:10-17) Okay, the disciples have just gotten back from their trips and what not (from what I understand) and they want to have a debriefing with Jesus. So they go to this really small town but the crowds follow them.  Jesus teaches them and healed them (Lesson #1- even if you’re tired or want to be alone, you should minister when you can). Late in the afternoon, the disciples say “We should send them away so they can go to the local HoJo to sleep.” What i hear is “We’re tired and we just want to go to sleep and stop dealing with all these crazy people.” Do you know what Jesus says? “You give them something to eat.” Whoa. What a command. To feed thousands of people! I feed about 60 every week and that’s almost more than enough. Immediately they start making excuses. I bet they had the same look that Josh did when I commanded him to talk. “How on earth will we feed all these people? All we have is a loaf of Ms. Bairds and some cans of tuna fish. We can’t do it unless we buy it.” Instead of asking how, they sadi they couldn’t do it. Luckily Jesus doesn’t wait to give advice.  He tells them to split them into groups. Jesus takes the bread and blesses it and passes it out. When they were done, the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of bread, and I bet they weren’t the bones of the bread. 

Do you see this? Miracles happen after Jesus tells us to do something so incredulous that we can’t even believe he’s saying it. It could be anything. Be a missionary. Forgive her. Have patience with him. Speak in front of this group. Tell her about me.  Jesus commands us to do stuff all the time and lots of time it sounds crazy! After his command, we need to work on trying to be faithful instead of negative. Don’t make excuses; say, “Okay, God. I dunno how you’re going to do it but I trust you.” Jesus will instruct us what to do next and then we do it. The important thing in this story is that God will call you to do things that you think you can’t (think Moses and Aaron, think David, think Paul) but if you prove faithful enough to trust that He’ll take care of you, amazing things will happen. So, I challenge you to work on listening to what God is telling you and instead of sitting there with your mouth open, taking action.