Hunger Challenge
Who would have thought that feeding people could be such a challenge?
In those days when there was again a great crowd without anything to eat, he called his disciples and said to them, ‘I have compassion for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint on the way—and some of them have come from a great distance.’ His disciples replied, ‘How can one feed these people with bread here in the desert?’ He asked them, ‘How many loaves do you have?’ They said, ‘Seven.’ Then he ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground; and he took the seven loaves, and after giving thanks he broke them and gave them to his disciples to distribute; and they distributed them to the crowd. They had also a few small fish; and after blessing them, he ordered that these too should be distributed. They ate and were filled; and they took up the broken pieces left over, seven baskets full. Now there were about four thousand people. And he sent them away. And immediately he got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. - Mark 8:1-10
For Jesus, the challenge was to find food for the people in the desert, far from the markets.
For us, today, the challenge is not in finding the food, but in getting the food to the people in a safe way. The COVID-19 novel coronavirus has everyone on edge, afraid to gather together. So our problem today is the opposite of the one Jesus faced.
He had a gathering of people and no food. We have food and cannot gather the people together.
What Jesus teaches us is to look at the problem in a non traditional way, to see the challenge for what it is, a challenge, not an insurmountable obstacle.
We may not know what Jesus would do in our situation, and we may think the solution requires a miracle, but amazing things can happen with a little faith.
Jesus relied on the people to get involved in the solution. He took what little they had, offered it to God and asked everyone to share. They we all fed.
If we believe God is with us in everything we do, we can believe there is a solution that He will show us, regardless of the depth or breadth of the problem we are trying to solve.
People who normally wouldn't work together can come together in a time of crisis, so I am confident God will help us find a solution together.
Maybe it is as easy as asking people to help.
More to come...