I
like this text; it is one of the passages regarding Jesus that is in all four
gospels. Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, and John 6:1-13. I have
a bit of a fascination with the phrase “doing more with less” whether I hear it
being used as a cliché to justify mass layoffs without the expectation of a
reduction in production, or if it someone truly capable of getting more out of
something than the average person is able to do. I think about our armed
services veterans deployed in the field with M.R.E.s or meals ready to eat. The
MRE contains:
Main course
(entree)
Side dish
Dessert or
snack (often commercial candy, fortified pastry, or HOOAH! Bar)
Crackers or
bread
Spread of
cheese, peanut butter, or jelly
Powdered
beverage mix: fruit flavored drink, cocoa, instant coffee or tea, sport drink,
or dairy shake.
Utensils
(usually just a plastic spoon)
Flameless
ration heater (FRH)
Beverage
mixing bag
Accessory
pack:
Xylitol
chewing gum
Water-resistant
matchbook
Napkin /
toilet paper
Moist
towelette
Seasonings,
including salt, pepper, sugar, creamer, and/or Tabasco sauce
The
MRE is designed for soldiers in combat out in the field who can’t just take a
break to go back to the cafeteria or mess hall for food. Because the MRE is
designed for lightweight packaging and has a shelf life of 3 years, they
usually don’t taste too good. That being said, savvy veterans come up with
little tricks to make the taste of the food more desirable. They will do things
like mix the creamer and sugar with the crackers to make it taste like a sugar
cookie. In 2011, the website www.supportourtroops.org put an effort together to send spices
for the soldiers, oregano, garlic, red pepper, parmesan and other spices in
little packets in an effort to help with the flavoring, trying to make more
with less.
Another
example I think of is prison; the food in prison I hear is not that great
either. Archbishop Ashe spoke of his time in jail before he passed that he
would rather eat food people threw away than jail food. I also heard an
interview with boxer Bernard Hopkins and he spoke on his time in prison in a
New York Times article:
“Not
surprisingly, Hopkins hated the food in prison, all the powdered eggs, yeast
and starch. The menu was posted at the beginning of each week, so he learned
how to work around the worst meals, smuggling leftovers to his cell or drinking
water to fill his stomach. He traded cartons of cigarettes and cases of cups of
noodles for more desirable food. He could subsist on meals, sometimes for days,
of peanut butter and bread. “You learn how to survive, buddy,” Hopkins said.
“You learn how to make an oven out of batteries and aluminum foil and a
shoebox. You become a farmer’s market, an entrepreneur.[1]
Bernard
Hopkins made more with less, he is now out and as a champion professional boxer
he doesn’t have to do that anymore unless he wants to.
I like to see
people do more with less and that is what happens in the text that we read,
Jesus does more with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread then most of us could have
done with a team of chefs.
Rest-
First thing I
noticed about Jesus in text was that he rested, in the 13th chapter
Jesus is teaching in synagogues and doing mighty works. Until he was rejected
in his own hometown of Nazareth, Jesus went on to say that “a prophet is not
without honor except in is own country, and in his own house,” and then he
left, at the beginning of chapter 14 Jesus gets word that John the Baptist, his
cousin has been beheaded as a birthday gift for the daughter of Herodias. Jesus
had been working, he heard some bad news, and so he went away to rest. We ought
to rest more, our body needs it, we can be so much more productive people if
spend some more time resting. But notice I said Jesus did some work first,
don’t use this as a reason to perpetually rest.
We often hear
the term multitasking doing multiple things at the same time, but studies have
shown that multitasking is actually not productive at all.
According to
a published report:
More than one task
splits the brain
Whenever
you need to pay attention, an area toward the front of the brain called the
prefrontal cortex springs to action. This area, which spans the left and right
sides of the brain, is part of the brain’s motivational system. It helps to
focus your attention on a goal and coordinates messages with other brain
systems to carry out the task.
While the right and left sides of the prefrontal cortex work
together when focused on a single task, the sides work independently when
people attempt to perform two tasks at once. Scientists at the Institut
National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) in Paris discovered
this when they asked study participants to complete two tasks at the same time
while undergoing functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI). When the
scientists told the group they would receive a larger reward for accurately
completing one of the two tasks, they found that nerve cell activity increased
in only one side of the prefrontal cortex. However, when the greater reward was
associated with the other task, the other side became more active. The findings
suggest that when there are two concurrent goals, the brain divides in half,
says INSERM neuroscientist Etienne
Koechlin, who led the study.[2]
So even if
you think you are doing both tasks well, you still are really focusing on the
one you think is more important or gives you more to gain. The article goes on
to say that you don’t get better at multitasking with practice, in fact gets
harder with age and people who multitask have a harder time ignoring external
distractions. Multitasking defeats the purpose, rest.
Do what you love
Second thing
I noticed when people are doing more with less is that they are doing what they
love. In the text Jesus was resting, he wanted some time away he just heard
some bad news, but the Bible says that he saw the great multitude and was moved
with compassion for them. When you do what you love it seems easier to work,
sometimes it doesn’t even feel like work. That compassion of Jesus is shown by
how he tends to the multitudes needs by healing their sick. That word for
compassion in the Greek also means to move. Jesus didn’t just say “I love you,
be blessed” he did something, it also means deep as in dealing with the anatomy
the inward parts. Not a superficial feeling but something that is deep on the
inside of us. When you have compassion or love for what you do, the troubles of
it don’t seem so bad. I am so glad that Jesus loves us.
Ephesians 2:4-5
New King James Version (NKJV)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with
which He loved us, 5 even when we
were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have
been saved),
1 John 4:9-11
New King James Version (NKJV)
9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has
sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. 11 Beloved, if
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1 Corinthians 13
New King James Version (NKJV)
13 Though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass
or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand
all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could
remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my
goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body
to be burned,[a] but have not love, it
profits me nothing.
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love
does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked,
thinks no evil; 6 does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
8 Love never fails. But whether there
are prophecies, they will fail; whether there
are tongues, they will cease; whether there
is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part.10 But when that
which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I
know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of
these is love.
Prioritize
The third
thing I noticed about the text and those who do more with less is that they
prioritize. The disciples wanted to send the multitude home, Jesus wanted them
to stay the priority was the work being done, not going home to shop for food.
I also noticed in some of the other gospel texts, when the disciples say how
much it would cost to feed the multitudes, no one ever says they don’t have the
money, only that it would cost a lot. Decisions in the texts, right or wrong,
were decisions made based on priorities. When you have the right priorities you
will be able to get a lot more accomplished.
Ask yourself,
what are your priorities? If you have some trouble answering the question, look
in your checkbook, which will help you figure it out, check out a bank
statement online or paper copy, whatever you see the most going to, I would be
willing to bet that is a priority. If not money, look at what you spend the
most time doing, where you spend your time and treasure will tell you what you
consider a priority. Only what you do for Christ will last
Know where your help comes from
The text says
that Jesus took the bread, looked to the heavens and blessed it. He knew where
his help came from, notice also that the boy is not mentioned anymore after he
hands over the food. You turn your problems over to the Lord and you don’t have
to handle them anymore.
Psalm 121 New King James Version (NKJV)
A Song of Ascents.
121 I will lift up my eyes to
the hills—
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
From whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
3 He will not allow your foot
to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
He who keeps you will not slumber.
4 Behold, He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord is your keeper;
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The Lord is your shade at your right hand.
6 The sun shall not strike you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord shall preserve you from all
evil;
He shall preserve your soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.
He shall preserve your soul.
8 The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in
From this time forth, and even forevermore.
Psalm 54:4New
King James Version (NKJV)
4 Behold, God is my helper;
The Lord is with those who uphold my life.
The Lord is with those who uphold my life.
Romans 8:31-39
New King James Version (NKJV)
God’s
Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He
who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who
shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and
furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes
intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation,
or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As
it is written:
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him
who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present
nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor
any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
