When the crowd was satisfied, Jesus told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. (John 6:12-13)
Is the world God made an abundant place or a scarce one? That question and how we answer it sets the stage for how we approach much of life. If we answer “scarce,” we live with anxiety, always concerned that something will happen to make us not have enough. If we answer “abundant,” we are free from that anxiety and able to live less defensively and in a more open way.
When Jesus fed the 5000 (one of the few stories that appears in all four gospels) the disciples were overwhelmed by the immensity of the crowd and how hard it would be to feed that many people. Although John’s gospel doesn’t include it, some of the other gospel writers report that the disciples wanted to send the crowd away.
Jesus sees the crowd and instead of thinking about what they don’t have (enough food) he asks what they do have. When they find some fish and bread among the crowd, the work of feeding begins. By the time they are done, everyone has eaten and there are leftovers to fill a dozen baskets!
Over the years, I have worked with congregations all across the US and Canada in my consulting work. The places where leaders see abundant possibilities are always the easiest to work with. They may not actually have any more than some other places I work with. But their attitude of “there is enough to do something” easily overtakes those places where they say, “we are running out of everything – there’s nothing for us to work with.”
Jesus understood this and in his work with the disciples he reorients their vision toward abundance and possibilities. This isn’t pie in the sky thinking or a faith trick where God rewards people who believe the right things with extra goodies. It is a way of seeing and working in the world that assumes that if God wants us to do something, then there is enough to work with so we can do it (otherwise God would have asked someone else!).
One of our guiding principles is: “Being grateful and generous to reflect God’s abundance.” It is a way we live that sees what God has given us and gives thanks for God’s generosity. Then, recognizing it comes to us as a gift and that as followers of Jesus we are conduits of God’s grace, we are generous in response – using what God has given us to bless and love the world and the neighbors God has given us.
So the next time you are overwhelmed with a sense that there isn’t enough to work with, pause and step back. You may find that you are right – sometimes there are shortages we can’t overcome. But often you will find that by looking again, there are things we missed and God is calling us to faithfully use them to do something that matters.
