Inside the Miracle of the Loaves and Fish

Blessing, God, Grace 0

I live my entire life inside the miracle of the loaves and fish. Nearly every sermon I preach feels incomplete and inadequate, but I preach it anyway, praying Jesus will fill in the gaps. My leadership is often imperfect and insufficient, but I lead to the best of my ability anyway and wait for Jesus to step in. The money I give away, particularly in response to acute human suffering, is never enough to meet the need, but I give anyway, hoping that, along with others, I might ease another’s pain. The image of a few loaves and some fish feeding a multitude is meant to encourage us all to give what we have when we know it is not enough. For reasons beyond our understanding, God consistently chooses to work through our imperfect, inadequate offerings.

–Mariann Edgar Budde, How We Learn To Be Brave, p. 117

Photo: Blackwater Falls, West Virginia, April 23, 2025

Made in the Image of God

Blessing, Calling, Life 0

When civilization has flourished, when great music, art, and literature have emerged, it’s always when human beings have felt good about being human. Human is something great to be. Being human is just a little less than God (Ps. 8:5). That’s exactly what faith gives us, a kind of extraordinary dignity. It gives us a sense of our own meaning: religion calls us “sons and daughters of God.” If we can do nothing else, we can give that back to the world: that we are created in the image of God, we have come forth from God, and we will return to God. We reflect part of the mystery of God. We are unique and apparently will never be created again.

When we see that the world is enchanted, we see the revelation of God in each individual as individual. Then our job is not to be Mother Theresa, our job is not to be St. Francis – it’s to do what is ours to do. That, by the way, was Francis’s word as he lay dying. He said, “I have done what was mine to do; now you must do what is yours to do.” We must find out what part of the mystery it is ours to reflect. There is a unique truth that our lives alone can reflect. That’s the only true meaning of heroism as far as I can see. In this ego-comparison game, we have had centuries of Christians comparing themselves to the Mother Teresas of each age, saying that she was the only name for holiness. Thank God we have such images of holiness, but sometimes we don’t do God or the Gospel a service by spending our life comparing ourselves to others’ gifts and calls. All I can give back to God is what God has given to me – nothing more and no less!

— Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs, p. 96-97

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, December 25, 2024

Blessed Limitations

Blessing, Life 0

God, erase my humiliation
about being stubbornly finite.
Remind me again
how all these limitations
can still be called blessed.

Blessed are my bleary eyes
and long naps.
Blessed are my scattered thoughts
and unfinished checklists.

May my mortality feel as beloved
as my efforts.
Because in all things,
I long to be yours.

— Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie, The Lives We Actually Have, p. 25

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 18, 2025

My Own Small Role

Blessing, Connection, Core Value 0

We too easily minimize the good that can be done by seemingly insignificant people in inconsequential places. Ours is a world where influence is measured by the number of likes or followers on social media. For every fantastic story that goes viral, there are countless others that are never told – stories about faithful people aware of their smallness in obscure or forgotten places who bless the world. History reminds us that those “small” stories matter, more than we may ever know.

I have my own small role to play, and so do you.

–Tracy Balzer, A Journey of Sea and Stone, p. 50-51

Photo: South Riding, Virginia, January 17, 2025

It’s Okay to Have Needs.

Acceptance, Blessing, Life, Prayer 0

The feeder is empty again
and no one is claiming
that the birds are greedy
for taking what they pleased.

Look at how the fat, pink flowers
are weighing the end of each branch,
sucking nutrients into each velvet petal.
How selfish.

Nature hungers, takes, and needs.
God, why can’t I?

Blessed are we, learning to take
what we need.
Sleeping past our alarms.
Reaching for another helping.
Staying a little longer
when the evening is unwinding.

— Kate Bowler, Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! Daily Meditations for the Ups, Downs, and In-Betweens, p. 19

Photo: Tree Swallow, South Riding, Virginia, May 21, 2024