Just give Jesus your little lunch

 I've been thinking lately about the miracle of the loaves and fishes. It is unusual in one way that no one was healed or raised from the dead. People were just hungry, and we aren't talking starving here. It was lunch time, and people were hungry. I am sure most of them could have gone home and gotten something to eat within a couple of hours, but Jesus cared enough to do something about it. That alone should give us hope that He cares about the little things and not just about the big things.

  I'm not a preacher, but there is another message in that story that has been sticking out to me. A lot of the reason is because of a new song on a CD. The song is called "Small-town Someone". The first verse talks about the feeding of the 5000 from the perspective of the boy whose lunch Jesus took and multiplied:

A little boy with a little brown basket

Thought it was crazy when someone asked him

If he could have his fish and bread

Wonder who would have ever guessed it

That when Jesus broke and blessed it

Thousands were fed

I'll bet he ran home and said

Chorus:
You won't believe it when I tell you all that I saw Jesus do

I still can't get over, out of the people He could choose to

Help Him feed the hungry, I can't believe He used my lunch

Picked me, just an ordinary small-town someone.

  The Bible doesn't say, but it is very possible there were others there who had taken a lunch. We don't know, but with that many people surely there were a few others who had brought something to eat. If there were, they didn't offer their lunch. Maybe they were too selfish, or they figured what they had was too insignificant to make a difference, maybe it was a lack of faith, or they figured no one would like what they brought. Whatever the case, no one else offered their food if they had food with them.

  But a boy had a couple of loaves of bread and a few fish. If they were just for him, I am sure they were small and not the size of our loaves of bread. His age is unknown, but his actions live on through a Bible story.

  I wonder what he was thinking? Did it even occur to him that Jesus would manage to feed 5000 people with his little lunch? Maybe he figured Jesus could eat it and that was enough for him to give up his lunch. If he was familiar with Jesus, he most likely knew of his miracles, so it is possible he had faith that Jesus could do something with his lunch to feed that many people. Whatever his thoughts, he willingly gave his lunch to Jesus for Him to use.

  I look at some people and envy their talents. They have so much to offer God and are so talented..... and then there is me.

I play the piano, but not very well.

I like to write, but rarely write something I think is very good.

I don't mind speaking, but am not sure I am any good at it, and don't have occasion to speak anymore. (being banned from speaking at your own church can do that)

  I look at my good qualities and have a hard time coming up with any. I'm too outspoken, too opinionated, too passionate, too insecure. I do have a conservative haircut though.......

  Some people think I talk too much about some things that I am interested in and passionate about. I even had a woman from my own church block me on Facebook because I posted too much about homosexual issues.

  Lately I have felt like a hamster running in a wheel. I wish I could do something for God with my life, but what? If you bundled up my talents and good qualities, it would be even more insignificant than a young boy's lunch.

But yet the size of the lunch and the boy himself had nothing to do with how the story ended, or how Jesus used it. Jesus took a small amount of food that was just enough to feed 5000 people, and there was 12 baskets full.

It would make sense to assume the same thing about our talents and qualities. It has been said that God does not call the qualified, but He qualifies those He calls. If I and others who feel we have so little to offer God, and feel our talents are so minuscule and not something He could use.... if we just gave them to Him anyway, had faith, and let Him use us in whatever way He wanted, there is no end of possibilities.

  A preacher preached a message once on "what is that in your hand". He listed some examples of people in the Bible that God helped them when all they had was something small. Samson slew a few thousand Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. David killed a giant with a small stone. 5000 people were fed with one boy's lunch.

  Granted, some people have a natural talent that exists whether they serve God or not, but even the most talented only do what truly matters when their talents are put into God's hands/

  The devil is smart. He has an endless supply of ways to tempt and discourage people, but he doesn't seem to just stop at trying to tempt Christians to sin. I believe he does his best to make us feel we are worthless and God can't use us, that we are no good at anything, and God only uses people who are really good at things....better than us. I am sure he knows if every Christian did as the boy with his lunch... if we had faith and were willing to let God use our little lunch or whatever it is we have that seems so small and insignificant.... we might turn the world upside down and accomplish so much for God that the devil himself would be discouraged.

  Just imagine it. If every Christian refused to listen to those voices that say God can't use us, that other people can do it better, and on and on.....only God knows what could happen. He might use us to start a revival, to change government policies, to encourage hundreds or thousands of people, and reach millions for God. It isn't the person or the talent that is responsible for what happens, but God. It is like being a tool. If someone makes a great meal, no one compliments the kitchen utensils for the quality of the meal. They compliment the cook who used those utensils to make the meal.

I cannot do anything in and of myself for God. I would fail at anything I'd do on my own, especially if I tried to take the credit. But if I just let myself be a tool in God's hand and not worry about my abilities or lack of abilities, who knows how God could use me. When the chef is cooking up a meal, the spoons and pans don't fret about how useful they are going to be, or fear that the food won't turn out right...they are a tool being used by a chef. It is up to him how the meal will turn out. Oh to be just like that with God, to just be willing to be used and not fret about how we will affect the outcome.

  We are in good company who fear the outcome of being used by God, or fear we are not able to do what He wants. Moses argued with God about being used to free Israel. Esther feared for her life, yet God used her to save the lives of her people. History is full of people who didn't think they had what it took, yet trusted God and He used them to accomplish great things they could never have done on their own.

 I look in the mirror and don't like what I see. Not just on the outside, but on the inside. My insecurities and self-doubts get in  the way of God using me. I don't have much, and if what I had was measured in a lunch, it wouldn't be enough to feed a sparrow..... but if I give that lunch to Jesus with no strings attached, and believing He can use it.... that He could use me, and take my hands off of the wheel, then the sky is the limit.

  It is a tall order, and the devil is really good at pointing out my failures, my lack of talents and abilities, but God help me remember that it isn't what I can do that God can use. It is what God can do with the little bit I have to offer Him.

Smalltown Someone (Lunch)

Verse 1

A little boy with a little brown basket

Thought it was crazy when someone asked him

If he could have his fish and bread

Wonder who would have ever guessed it

That when Jesus broke and blessed it

Thousands were fed

I'll bet he ran home and said

Chorus:
You won't believe it when I tell you all that I saw Jesus do

I still can't get over, out of the people He could choose to

Help Him feed the hungry, I can't believe He used my lunch

Picked me, just an ordinary small-town someone.

Verse 2:

A little girl, a big time dreamer

Never really thought she would be a singer

But she's thankful every day

That God could use the little gift that He gave her

To tell others about a Savior

And His amazing grace

And if you ask her, she'd say

Chorus:
You won't believe it when I tell you all that I saw Jesus do

I still can't get over, out of the people He could choose to

Help Him feed the hungry, I can't believe He used my lunch

Picked me, just an ordinary small-town someone.

Bridge

Oh the smallest offering

He can bless

Chorus:
You won't believe it when I tell you all that I saw Jesus do

I still can't get over, out of the people He could choose to

Help Him feed the hungry, I can't believe He used my lunch

Picked me, just an ordinary small-town someone.