Too Big for Me

The other day a friend of mine was telling me about some of his recent car problems. They were quite significant. He had the head gasket replaced, the catalytic converter replaced and then several other repairs that totalled 1,700 dollars. His emergency fund was gone.

It got worse. He found out that all of those repairs did not fix his car. He was going to need a new engine. I felt really sorry for him. He really is a great guy, but in the end I did nothing. I mean, how could I? The problem was too big for me, and I did not have the resources to fix it.

Enter my wonderful wife. Yes, the same person who bought me my cool phone, SD card, and bluetooth headphones. She asked why the church could not help my friend with his financial difficulty. It was at that point that I realized that I had sinned.

You see, a couple weeks prior to that I had read the story of the loaves and the fishes, and I realized that one of the lessons of the story is that we should not let our lack of resources, or the enormity of the problem keep us from responding. The problem was that I had just done that. I had let my lack of resources prevent me from acting in response to a big problem.

I began calling people to see if they could help my friend. Almost everyone I called said that they could do something to help. The last person I called knew the situation very well, and he said that my friend's mother was going to foot the entire bill.

Here is where you need some background. My friend's relationship with his mother was strained at best. There was a complete history there that I only knew a small bit about, so when I did find out that she was going to help her son, I was quite surprised.

The problem I had is that not only was I surprised, I was also offended. Really, I was. No, I was not offended at my friend. I was offended at God. I talked to Him about it. "Why did you get me off my butt if you had the situation solved?" I asked. Not knowing what else I could do, I read the story about the loaves and the fishes again.

This time I looked to see who fed the 5,000 and was shocked to see that it was not the boy, or the disciples. It was Jesus. I realized that my story about my friend's car and my waking up to the need to act was totally in line with the story. Even the part about who did the fixing.