Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 14:15-17

When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, 'This is a lonely place, and time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go to the villages to buy themselves some food.' Jesus replied, 'There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.' But they answered, 'All we have with us is five loaves and two fish.'

Prayer

‘All’ the word rings in my mind from too many speakings.

So it is, my Brother, we are possessed by our insufficiency. All I have is … . The message is clear. I haven’t enough. It is too little, too small, too weak to do what is needed.

The words mirror our souls. We spend our days looking at ourselves, reinforcing our fears. And our fears intensify our focus on our smallness. It is all a self-reinforcing circle.

If only we looked first to you, Jesus, we would see the lavishness of your love and break free from the circle of our anxieties. Our hearts would no longer be possessed by our insufficiency. Instead, we’d ask, ‘What would you have us do with the gifts you have put in our hands? Where will your unbounded love take us? What does it move us to be and to do?

You call us far beyond, ‘All we have … ’ to ‘this you have given; … what now?’

That question leads to adventures of which we can’t see the ending. Except we trust and know: It all ends in you, in the love you are.

So free us from our insufficiency. Set our eyes on the all-sufficiency of a love that possesses our every moment.

Pr. David L. Miller