I'm Inadequate—Thank the Lord!
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"The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, 'Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest'" (Mark 6:30, 31).
We all know how that worked out!
Even though they found themselves a lonely spot, the crowds pursued Jesus and the lonely place wasn't lonely anymore. But Jesus, being Who He was, didn't feel resentment or dismay or indulge in a pity party. Mark says, "...he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things" (vs. 34).
The day passed. The disciples came to Jesus to point out where the big hand and the little hand on Peter's Timex was situated. They wanted Jesus to send the people home. Everyone was hungry.
We know how that worked out too!
Jesus told them to feed the crowd. "They said to him, 'That would take eight months of a man's wages! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?" (vs. 37).
Put the emphasis on the "we" in that sentence. The disciples were poor men. They were living off charity, having left their work to follow the Lord. They didn't have eight months of wages to spend to buy for food for themselves, let alone a crowd of this size.
"Lord, you are asking US to feed this crowd?"
Inadequacy is not acceptable in today's society. We live to be reassured that we can do anything we want. We tell that to our kids. We try to convince ourselves that it is true. And when we discover just how inadequate we really are, hope is often lost. For some, the absence of that hope leads to despair, and despair to some awful ways by which we think we can dull its pain.
I feel inadequate most of the time. And sometimes I am prone to despair.
And then I read a story like this one.
Jesus asked the disciples what they had on hand. Actually they had nothing, but one little kid in the crowd had thought to bring some lunch with him (John 6:9). Not only are the disciples inadequate for the task but they are not even remotely prepared to try to be adequate! They hadn't even brought lunch for themselves.
Five little loaves and two small fish—a boy-sized lunch. Inadequate for five thousand men whose growling stomachs were only overridden by the crying of hungry children asking their mommies when dinner was going to be ready.
Then Jesus takes "boy-sized" and multiplies it.
"They all ate and were satisfied" (vs. 42). And there were leftovers.
I only have a Lynda-sized lunch—it's not very big. It is inadequate. But the Lord is more than adequate. That's the point!
By most human standards, Paul would have been considered more than adequate. He was highly educated, had Roman citizenship, and was a man of high moral fiber both before and after he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. But to make sure that he remembered that his adequacies were inadequate, God gave him a "thorn," a reminder. But Paul didn't lose hope or fall into despair because of that "thorn" though, like most of us, he would have rather not had it at all. He writes: "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Corinthians 12:8-10).
This is not resignation, a reluctant acceptance of a reality. Paul is delighted to be inadequate!
I like that! It means that I don't have to despair that my Lynda-sized lunch won't cut it—because it won't. It means that Jesus can take the Lynda-sized lunch and multiply it as He chooses.
That is perfect!
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