Being Pathetic Is the Point

A few days ago I posted an entry based on Jesus’ miraculous feeding of the five thousand from Matthew 14:5-18 (“What do you have?”). The entry that day was pretty short, but the story itself has been a great encouragement to me over the last week and especially today. The logic goes something like this:

1. If you hang around Jesus long enough, you’ll start to notice the needs of others.
2. Developing a Christ-like heart means not only noticing those needs but trying to meet them as well.
3. People’s needs are more than we can handle . . . a lot more than we can handle.
4. Though well meaning, our attempts to meet other people’s needs (because they’re so overwhelming) often results in stupid ideas focused on “helping people help themselves.”
5. What Jesus wants is for us to offer to him (at great cost to ourselves) whatever measly supplies (gifts, services, time, talents, etc.) we have.
6. Though in itself what we have to offer is pathetically inadequate, Jesus takes what we offer him and “breaks it.”
7. Having been broken, our “supplies” are now ready to really be of service.

The point in all of this is simple: our inadequacies glorify Jesus. Being pathetic is the point. That’s how we know we’re doing ministry right. This doesn’t mean it’ll be easy. Being pathetic still hurts (it’s vulnerable and humbling). But Jesus isn’t looking for good cooks, he’s looking for disciples who love what he loves and give what costs the most.