What You Really Need More Of

And I do know that in my life, there are many times where I forget the things that God has done for me. Right. Like when I think of the miracles that God has done in my life and the things that I have seen God in the life of this church, it's insane. I still, to this day, can smell the smell of the Providence High School drama dressing rooms. That's where we first started. And I remember peeking out from behind the curtain, because back then, I was one of the background vocalists. You didn't know that about me, did you? Because we didn't have anyone who could really sing yet. And so I was getting the job done. And I remember peeking out from behind the curtain and wondering if people were gonna show up because we'd added a second service. And every week they did. And I remember during COVID wondering if people were really going to watch church online from their homes. And they did. And I've seen so many miracles in my own life and in my own family. And yet sometimes when a tough situation ar, I get this, like, sudden onset of spiritual amnesia, and I completely forget all that I have seen God do with my seven loaves of bread. My December imagination was going, and I started thinking, what if they didn't forget about the feeding of the 5,000? What if they actually remembered how much work it took to feed 5,000 men, plus women and children? Because, look, in my house, I am in charge of feeding five people. I always plan for a straight teenager or two as well. And some nights I cook. I like to cook. So some nights I cook, some nights we order food. And my strategy is always, never throw food away, because unless it's bad, which in my house, my kids know, it has to look bad or smell bad, otherwise you can eat it, or if it tastes bad, spit it out, it's fine. Because I don't throw food away because somebody's always hungry in my house. And so I always make sure that there's enough food in our fridge and in our pantry. And so some nights when I'm too tired to feed people, and I don't want to go to the effort of cooking, and I don't want to go to the effort of ordering and spending the money to order food, I'm just going to be honest with you. When a teenager looks at me and asks me, where in this remote place can we get enough food, I have a hard time mustering up the compassion of Jesus. So we don't break bread. We eat cereal. Feeding people is a lot of work. And I just wonder if the disciples remembered how much work it was to distribute food to thousands and thousands of people. Remember, they had been there for three days too, and they were tired too. And they had just enough left to split between the lot of them and go home. And so, as I was feeling like I did not have enough during this busy Christmas season, it made me wonder if in this moment, the disciples problem was not not enough bread, but if their problem was not enough compassion. Stephen told us in his message that the disciples saw crowds. When Jesus saw people, he had compassion for the people. He said, they've been here three days. They won't make it home if you don't give them something to eat. And when we're faced with a not enough moment, our first prayer should be, Lord, change what I see. I think the disciples wanted to eat their seven loaves and go home and get a shower and get some sleep. But Jesus had compassion on the hungry people and he knew that he had more to give them. Jesus wanted this crowd to go home full physically and spiritually, because he knew that often our physical needs are directly connected with our spiritual needs. And he wanted to feed the people through the hands of the disciples. Lord, change what I see. I want to see people, not problems. I want to have compassion for the hungry people around me. Hey, thanks for watching. I hope that encouraged you today. Make sure that you like subscribe and hit that bell to subscribe to turn on notifications so that you don't miss out on other videos just like this one. And I'll see you back here next time.