What is your reaction when you are faced with a situation in which you see no good solution? Are you ready to cut your losses and seek to escape? Do you look for someone else to take over responsibility or be the one to blame? How can you take a different viewpoint?
Being in difficult situations, especially ones that seem to have no good outcome is hard. Often, we just want to give up or run as far away as we can. Sticking it out and seeing it through is not something we look forward to. Yet, those situations are great for learning from.
Do not think you are the only one who wants to pawn it off on someone else. Jesus’ disciples did the same. When Jesus had been teaching most of the day to a crowd of thousands, his disciples told Him to send them away so they could find food for themselves. It was a logical thing to do from a human perspective. But it wasn’t Jesus’ way of doing things.
We can find ourselves being much like Jesus’ disciples in this story. We find ourselves in a situation that is near impossible, or we see it as impossible with our human view and look for an avenue of escape. We may turn our backs on those in need because we do not see a way to provide for them. We may push people away because their need makes us uncomfortable.
Perhaps the better way of serving in those situations is go to God in prayer, ask for him to guide us through it, and trust him to do so. We quickly forget that God is all-powerful, everywhere at once, knows everything, and will do the right thing according to his will. His will is to care for us and us love him. His will includes providing for us in a time of need, which may include using others. His desire is that we trust him to carry out his will.
I pray we all love and trust God to carry out his will. I pray we seek to live within God’s will. I pray each one of us will see beyond the impossibilities to see the possible with God. Seek God always. Love God. Trust God. Seek God’s will. Live in God’s will. Know God is all-powerful. Know God is omnipresent. Know God is omniscient. Know God is omnipotent.
Mark 6:35-36 When it grew late, his disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now very late; send them away so that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy something for themselves to eat.”
Marty Pressey 