Yes, You: A Woman of Impact Message with Willow Weston

Willow: 00:00:00

Hey friends. So glad you hopped on the podcast today. If you don't already subscribe and get this to your inbox. Make sure that you hit the subscribe button. It's super, super easy and then it just pings you and gives you fresh content and resources so you can grow in your faith. Make sure you do that today. Share this with a friend if it inspires them, but I hope it inspires you. I'm going to share with you today.

Since we're in the middle of this Women of Impact series and we're grabbing classes that we actually are a part of our Women of Impact course bundle. We're actually grabbing some of them and we're sharing them with you on the podcast to inspire you to do amazing things.

And so today you're going to hear the class I taught called Yes, You and I really just sort of deep dive into this idea of all the ways we say not me Lord, not me, not me because I'm too old, not me because I'm not cool enough, not me because I don't have experience and I don't know today what your not me's are, but I know that God wants to use you. Yes, You! And so be encouraged today as you take a listen.

I want to start our time together today sharing a bit about the story that had me unexpectedly saying yes to God, using my life in the hopes of impacting other people.

If I rewind back to being a college student, there were years of wounds and dysfunction, loneliness, abandonment issues, insecurity, secrets, and really living out of all of that that rack me up some pretty good stories that found me to be a real mess by the time I was a college student at Western Washington University in the Pacific Northwest and I had an insatiable longing and all my attempts to fill it were leaving me more and more empty.

And a few years before walking into church and giving my life to Christ, which I'll share about in a little bit, I was a sophomore in college and I got a knock on my dorm door and I opened up the door and it was the guy from the night before that I had hooked up with that I barely knew. And he was crying and he handed me my very first Bible.

I'd never owned a Bible before and he said that he felt sorry and ashamed for what we did the night before together. And he might have felt guilty that day, but certainly didn't feel guilty for years to come.

But that schmuck was how I landed my very first Bible and I put it on my shelf with no plans of ever reading it. I wanted nothing to do with Christians. I threw Bibles back at the Gideons when they came on campus.

I had no desire to trade grunge music in for hymns. I didn't want to be told how to vote or what not to do with my boyfriends. I thought, I'm never going to scrapbook. I don't like church potlucks.

And Sundays were for nursing hangovers, or so I thought. And of course there was no God, I assume, because where was he when I needed him most?

And his people, they were dreadfully boring and judgmental and narrow minded. And this was what I thought. By the time I was a junior in college, my life was falling apart and I was walking to school and breaking down.

I began withdrawing from classes and people and family. And I remember feeling so desperate. And I found myself in a hotel room one night.

And it was another night full of shame and vulnerability and fear where I found myself just wanting to be rescued. And I called out, God, if you are real, if you are there, come and help me. And I suppose you could say that that was my first conversation with God.

I wanted to be found by him and him by me. But I was sure if he were real, he wouldn't want anything to do with the likes of me.

I was sure that I would call out like I remember doing when I was a kid when some terrible, awful, fearful thing happened that no one would come to rescue me. And I was sure that that would be true of God as well.

My assumption that God would not enter my brokenness is perhaps the same assumption that leaves the pews empty on Sunday. And maybe you sometimes have that assumption as well. After pleading to God, it wasn't like abracadabra, behold God in Motel 6.

But I've often heard God talked about as the hound of Heaven. And God completely stalked me. My landlord was Christian, my co workers were Christian, my hairdresser was Christian.

I went to a counselor and she was Christian. I mean, my dog was probably Christian, I don't know. But around that same time, I ended up opening that darn black book that says Holy Bible on it.

It was like it was staring at me on that shelf and I'd never read it in my life. And its words will pierce any open heart. And my heart was about as open as it was broken.

And I started reading on page one in the beginning, and it seemed like in the beginning things were awesome. And then they got really messed up. It seems like Adam, the first father, blew it and his sons were ruined. And they ruined their sons.

And everything was a bloody, wounded mess with orphans and anger and widows and war and sad girls getting sloppy drunk and sleeping with boys to numb the pain. And I began to think, if these words are his words, the God of the universe, the One who made everything, if.

If these were his words, what would he say to me about all of this pain? How was he going to rescue all of us if he was real? I wanted to see God around every corner. I wanted to feel Him. I wanted to hear Him.

I was talking to him like he was everywhere because he claims that he is. I was taking his promises back to him and expecting faithfulness. I was counting on him to show up. I was done with no shows.

I tried rescuing myself and everyone around me since I was little and it was his turn. I wasn't messing around. This was not some religion or familial faith obligation. I needed God to make sense of my story.

And that might seem expectant, but I think expectancy is exactly why I found God all over the place. After a long pursuit on his part and mine, at the age of 21, I handed my life to Jesus Christ.

And by handed my life to Jesus Christ, I really mean handed my life. I remember my arms extending out, surrendering all of the pain, all of the confusion, all of the chapters, my body, my mind and my broken heart.

The moment I gave my life to Jesus was in a charismatic church with about 20 Christian women. And it was a very uncomfortable place for me to find myself.

A very unlikely place where I was surrounded by a bunch of people who spoke in a native tongue that was not my own, nor did they hold my same values. It was an unlikely place to find me, but a woman just bold and sassy enough to handle my mess and love me anyway.

My Christian landlord, she invited me. And so I said yes. And someone there in this group asked me my opinion on a topic. And this was after a year of being hounded and stalked by God.

And I responded, I'm not a Christian, so I probably shouldn't answer. And this woman looked at me and she said what I needed someone to say, what are you waiting for?

And I knew in that moment that I wasn't waiting for anything. That I wanted God, that I had been looking for God, that I finally found God and knew that God wanted me to.

And it was in that sweet moment when I handed my life to Jesus Christ that these well intended women began praying over me in tongues. And it scared the heck out of me because they were praying that I too would speak in tongues. And they kept doing this for some time.

And though I think speaking in tongues is possible, it wasn't happening for me. And so I wondered if I needed to fake them out or if I needed to wait them out.

And so I decided that I would be authentic and I would be real, because God is real too.

So about a half hour later, I ran out of that church like a scary religious monster was chasing me, not sure if I would ever step foot in a church again.

And the next week, in all my tentativeness, having never been a churchgoer, having spent my entire life as an irreligious person, I drove up to a church by myself. And I suppose in what you could call a prayer, I just said out loud to God in my car, God, if this is where you want me to be, help me to know.

And I walked into this church and I was overwhelmed with a sense of belonging. And I wanted my commitment to Jesus to mean something. And so I marked the box on the little communication card that they pass out to everyone.

I give my life to Christ.

And that next week, I was checking groceries at the grocery store that I worked for in college to pay for my Long island iced teas and my drinking problem in college. And these two guys randomly walked through my line and they were buying massive amounts of baby food.

And of course I started making fun of them and asking them why, which was not a part of my job description. And it turned out that those two guys were youth leaders at the church that I just randomly walked into the week before.

And I said something like, no way. I just visited your church. And they eagerly invited me. You should come and be a youth leader. And I thought, there's no way, not me.

I'd never been a part of a youth group, let alone qualified to lead at one. I wouldn't have a clue how to make a 15 year old play with baby food and turn that into a bestie friendship with Jesus.

I thought, oh my gosh, I'm not even tight with God. I mean, I like to dance to Bob Marley and drink and stand on top of coffee tables while doing both those things.

I mean, how could God use a girl like me with lots of baggage, bleeding wounds, little knowledge of Jesus, and no church background? I mean, I just didn't fit the profile. But these two men were convincing.

So I showed up at this church's rowdy youth group for the very first time the next week as a leader. And a few days later, I was checking groceries again at the grocery store. I worked At.

And there was a lady standing behind me, and I assumed maybe she needed paper or plastic. So I turned around and I said, can I help you? And she said in a British voice, I knew you when you were a little girl, and I need to meet with you.

And so the next week, we met for coffee. I had no idea why this woman wanted to meet with me. And I didn't recall ever seeing her before in my life.

And she said that she came across my name in the communication cards at her church because that's her volunteer job. And it said that I gave my life to Christ. And she read my name and she said there couldn't be another Willow McJurry.

She said, I knew you when you were a little girl, and God told me that you were going to hurt and that you were going to need him. And so I started praying for you. And I've been praying for you all these years.

And here, 15 some years later, you walked into my church and gave your life to Christ all the way across the state, in another town. She was crying and I was crying.

I needed to know that my father came for me, that all those years that I couldn't see that God was real, because what was he doing to help me? He finally came for me and rescued me, and he had so much pain and wounds and brokenness that he had to break through to get to me.

And he finally did. I showed up again as a youth leader the next week and the next and the next. And I often felt insecure to help people for God.

I mean, I was sure I didn't belong. I wasn't good enough to be a leader. But the more that I showed up to help the kids, the more Jesus started helping me. Crazy things started happening.

I started waking up in the middle of the night and words were coming out my mouth, and I started writing them down. I didn't know what was happening, and I couldn't wait to share them with struggling teenagers.

I met with the youth pastor and his wife, and I started telling them what was happening to me. And I said, I don't know what's going on. And they said, we believe you're being called into vocational ministry. I said, what's vocational ministry?

I don't even know what that is. And they were like, duh. It's when ministry is your vocation and your calling. And I honestly didn't know.

And I was stomping on the inside like, no, that is not my plan. My plan is to go into the business world and, you know, run some Sort of corporation. And so I just said, no, not me.

I was pursuing this plan and getting a degree and wanting to go make the big bucks. And I was planning on marrying schmucky Bible boy. And Jesus was my new friend. And I was like, yeah, cool, you can come with me, Jesus.

But I was more of a Jesus dragger than a Jesus follower.

And I don't know if you can resonate when you're thinking about the plans that you're making in your life when it has to do with anything, whether it's career or calling or relationships, and you're going to bring Jesus along with you on those plans. And you're like, Jesus is cool. He's my homeboy. He can come with me. Bless it, Lord, bless it. That's not Jesus following, that's Jesus dragging.

And that's what I was doing.

And one day after class, I was walking home from school, and I was on this trail in the forest on the way to my apartment, and these words came out of my mouth, and it was my voice, but not my words. And I heard these words, I want to use your life to proclaim in my power.

So when you get off this trail, sure, you believe in me, but I want more than that for you and from you. When you get off this trail, you're going to decide, are you going to go my way and follow me and my plan for your life?

Are you going to step off this trail and follow your own? And I wanted to scream, not me. But when I stepped off that trail, I knew exactly where I was going.

So randomly, I applied to be a pastoral intern at this church that I had been volunteering at. And I was sure that they would find out who I really was and they would turn me down lickety split. And I had to go through a course of interviews.

The first interview, second interview, get to the third interview, and I'm sitting across from the senior pastor. And he lovingly challenged me to try preaching. I said, me, there's no way I'll ever preach.

I mean, I'll go visit the ladies at the nursing home, I'll play dodgeball with the teenagers, I'll clean the toilets, I'll do whatever you ask, but actually stand in front of people and have something to say that will change lives. No way. Not me. Never. I've never taken Bible one, never taken speech class. I don't know the Bible in and out.

Plus, people will see my booty, and no one needs to see my booty. And that's why this church turned me down from this internship. Of course they did. I thought I walked away.

Of course they turned me down because I found evidence for what I already believed about myself, which was that I was too inadequate to do something amazing for God, an opportunity to do something amazing. But I walked away because I couldn't believe that God could use me.

And I just wonder if you are walking away from opportunities to do amazing things because you don't see how it's possible. How often do you say not me because this not me has us dreaming small instead of big.

This not me has us cowering in fear when we really actually want to say yes. This not me has us discouraged and disappointed in our career.

And calling this not me has a settling for the ordinary, even at the invite of the extraordinary. This not me is has us making God small in our faith smaller. And this not me mantra has some of you waiting. You are waiting to get cooler.

You are waiting to get a degree. You're waiting for this season to pass. You're waiting to be higher on the ladder, waiting for a different status. You're waiting for experience.

You're waiting to get tighter with the big man upstairs. You're waiting to sound more spiritual. You're waiting to be like Susie.

You're waiting for your insecurities to be replaced with a strong sense of self confidence. Some of you are even waiting for your personality and your talents to change.

And you can wait till you're blue in the face, honey, but none of your waiting is what's going to pull off amazing things in your life. John 6 tells a story about God doing something absolutely amazing through someone who surely thought not me.

And I'm confident as we lean into this passage and collide with Jesus, he will meet each one of us in our own doubt and discouragement, our small dreams and our big fears and personally and powerfully speak to us. And this miracle that is recorded in all four gospels starts out with a huge crowd of people following Jesus because he was healing the sick.

You know, sometimes I think we read the Bible like we listen to the news. Like thousands of people were displaced from their homes. Like six people were shot at the mall.

Like another middle schooler committed suicide when the Bible says a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. These were people's mothers with cancer. These were people's friends with mental illness. These were people's children with epilepsy.

And Jesus was healing them. I would follow him too.

I would get a fanny pack and throw in some trail mix and trek with Jesus to Timbuktu if he healed someone that I love and Jesus, he sees this mob coming at him, all these people, because he's healing their loved ones. And I think his response is funny because he could have supernaturally vanished like poof and he's gone. He doesn't have to deal with the crowd.

Or it could have been Jesus at an Irish pub listening to bagpipers, or he could have had them get in small groups and share their happies and crappies. But he doesn't. He says to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people?

When I read this passage I'm thinking, can't they just go home and have nachos later? Jesus question was to help Philip realize what Jesus already knew Most of us.

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Willow: 00:21:39

Verse 6 says for he already had in mind what he was going to do. How often are we in a scenario and we're freaking out? There is no way we're thinking there's no way.

Meanwhile, God is sitting there confident in his plan. Maybe this can be our new mantra.

When our kids come home and they're hurting and we have no control over making it better, maybe our mantra can be God already has in mind what he is going to do.

When the love of our life decides we aren't good enough and we go to bed alone in our grief, we can remind ourselves somehow, some way, God already has in mind what he is going to do.

When we've been given an opportunity to do something amazing and we see absolutely no way it's possible, maybe we can say to ourselves, God already has in mind what he's going to do. We can say to ourselves, self, you have a God. He already has in mind what he's going to do.

I wonder how that would change our mindset if we stood confidently on this belief in all circumstances so Philip, he answers Jesus the way that I think you and I might. You want to feed thousands on the fly with no plan, no caterer, no money, when Satan ice skates to work on the first of never.

No, that's not really what Philip said. But what he said was it would take. He gets very logical. No way.

There's no way it would take more than a half a year's wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. But notice when you read John 6 that Andrew sees differently than Philip because he says, here.

Here's a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish. But how far will they go among so many out of 5,000 people? Andrew spots some potential in this one boy in his loser lunch.

Imagine this little boy, he's following the crowd. Who knows? Maybe he was wondering, what's all the hullabaloo about Jesus anyways? Maybe he was intrigued by Jesus.

Maybe he was drug along by his mama, who needed a miracle.

Regardless of why this boy happened to find himself on the same hillside as Jesus, I'm almost 100% sure he did not think he was going to get called out. There he was with his little lunch. An inferior lunch, no less. See, barley bread was cheap. It was the bread of the poor.

One commentator that I learned from said barley was called the food of beasts and an offering for a woman who's committed adultery. Do you ever feel inferior? Do you ever feel like what you have is not enough? This boy resonates with you, and yet Andrew sees in him potential.

The definition of the word potential is latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. Seeing potential in someone requires seeing something that may be developed but hasn't yet been.

Seeing potential is why a pastor asked me if I would preach decades ago. He saw in me what I could not see in myself.

Seeing potential in others requires that we look past obstacles, present status, abilities, weaknesses and failures. We often can't seem to see beyond the now. But God sees who a man was, who a man is, and who a man can become.

Seeing potential in someone requires a foresight because of a trust in what God can do in another person's life. Seeing potential looks like you picking the least likely boy on a hillside with a super small luncheon saying, that's the ticket right there.

That's it. The greatest enemy of seeing potential is looking for success. So hear me right now.

If you are a business owner or you are a leader of an organization, or you are a teacher in A school. I don't know in what sector God has called you. But the greatest enemy of seeing potential is only looking for success.

Seeing potential in someone is not seeing success. Everyone can see success. Seeing potential is seeing something that is not yet. We have to be people who see potential before the proof.

Imagine all the lives untapped of their God given potential because God's people are only looking for success. When you look at your kids or your spouse or your employees, do you look for success or do you look for potential?

We often don't see potential because we box certain kinds of people out. And when we box certain kinds of people out, we box God in. And our definitions of who God uses keep us from seeing his amazingness all the time.

Imagine being the scoffers in this crowd who at the suggestion of Jesus using what this poor boy had thought. Well, we often do. No way.

Because surely God only uses the wealthy put together strong, educated, good looking, charming, super spiritual people with accolades, impressive resumes and lots of followers on Instagram. And so we so often box out certain kinds of people. The elderly, the disabled, the depressed, the odd, the sinful and the shy.

And when we do this, we limit God's power because we limit God's people. And are we to do that? Seeing potential in others costs you nothing. It might have cost God everything, but you know it costs you nothing.

As a business owner, it's free. As a leader, it's free. As a parent, it's free. As a teacher, it's free. As a friend, it's free.

Seeing potential in others quite possibly might be the greatest impact move you can make in the world around you. Imagine the stories people could tell about how you called them up.

Imagine the impact if we started being Andrews, calling out the God given potential in the people who stopped believing that they had any untapped potential, I believe is quite possibly God's answer to most of the world's needs. And all we have to do is be like Andrew and call it out. We don't often see potential because we see in terms of possibility and not power.

For being a people of faith, have we lost all hope in a God who holds the power to do powerful things? I think we might be like Philip looking at impossibilities. Certain there is no way.

We often don't give awesome things half a second to have a chance to breathe. Can God pull off amazing things in your life and around your life? Can God take something small and make it big? Can God do the impossible?

Please, people of faith, tell me that he can. Well, look at what Jesus does at this crazy suggestion of using a poor kid's hoe bread to feed the masses.

Jesus has them sit down and he takes the loaves and gave thanks and distributed them to all who receded as much as they wanted. And he did the same for the fish. And this was crazy. It was off the hook.

And Jesus knew in that moment that what he was going to do, both here on this hillside, he was in this miracle he would also do one day to come very soon.

se we would later see in Luke: 22:19

Jesus knew that day on the hillside with 5,000 people that in the same way that he broke bread and gave thanks to feed them, he too would be broken and give thanks to save them.

Jesus knew that we as a people would experience pain and hardship, name calling, traps, betrayal, abuse, breakups, hangovers and skeletons left in the closet. And Jesus knew that all this would leave us so hungry and all of our attempts to satiate our own hunger that they would leave us even hungrier.

And he knew all this hunger would end up stealing our God given worth and potential. And so Jesus would end up choosing to give away more than bread, but his very self for all those who found themselves hungry but not yet.

That was to come later. For now, Jesus's power pulled off something amazing through someone who was looked upon as inferior. Because that's what God's power does.

God's power supersedes small and young, insignificant and messed up, bad track record and broke. God's power is not held back by disbelief or disadvantage, mockery or money. God's power is not intimidated by not going to happen, never and no ways.

God's power is not restricted by impossibility, improbability or impracticality. God knows what his power can do through one person's life.

And God isn't sitting around fretting about what he's going to do with your life or through your life. He's going to write an amazing story with your life if you allow him to. Because God sees in us what we do not see in ourselves.

See, God saw in scripture all the time. We see. God saw the Peter and Simon who Simon did not see in himself.

God saw the woman who would be used to change her village in the get around girl at the well. God saw the preacher and Paul and the Christian killer Saul. And God saw in this little lad and his weak sauce lunch.

A beautiful way to feed his people in an amazing story that would be told to inspire people to feed others for thousands of years to come. Imagine what God sees in you. You know, I think it's really easy to begin to believe that we don't have the potential that we desire to have.

It's really easy to believe that.

But I want to tell you about the God I know that I ran into and collided with about 25 years ago that turned my not me's into yes yous see, he's a God who uses unlikely people to do amazing things. Throughout history, God has used fraidy cats, punks, failures, big bad sinners, painful stories and sketchy past to change lives.

God picks the least likely. If God used the people, we would. Goliath would still be bullying but.

But instead God used an insecure, unequipped young man who stepped up and didn't let insecurity in what he didn't have get in the way of what he was called to do. God used David to pelt an oppressive monster straight square in the eyes with a mere pebble to rescue his people. If God used the people, we would.

Gideon's people would still be oppressed while he put his confidence in his sissy baby self. But instead God found that unlikely wimp hiding in fear in a winepress peeing his own pants. And God used him to set his people free.

If God used the people we would the Israelites would still be slaves for Pharaoh and the Red Sea never would have parted if Moses would have let his stutter and his disability determine what he was supposed to do with his life. But instead Moses allowed the call of God to be louder than his weaknesses. And because of that, he was used to save a nation.

If God used the people that we would, the 5,000 hungry humans would still be hangry.

But instead God chose to use an unlikely little boys lunch to feed a small city that you can sit around till you're blue in the face until you're 95 years old and. And you can say I'm too. I'm too young in my faith. I'm too much of a disappointment. I'm too plain. I'm too different. I'm too weighed down.

I'm too ungodly. God's too. God's too big. God's too amazing. God's too mighty. God's too powerful. God's too sovereign.

If you believe it's unlikely that God can use you, you are in the right place. That's when God can use you. That's where Moses was at in the burning bush. That's where Gideon was in the wine press.

That's where Joseph was when his brothers threw him in a hole. God uses unlikely people so that we know it's Him.

And when you start to believe that it will be you that he uses, and it's often when you're peeing your pants and you're stuttering, when you're holding a bag of barley, it's in that kind of unlikeliness that God does his greatest work. He is a God who uses what confounds us. First Corinthians says, God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are.

The word shame here is more accurately the word confound, which means to destroy or baffle or frustrate or throw into confusion. God will confound you by who he uses. He will surprise you. God will not be predictable in his power. His power cannot be made sense by man.

So then, when God uses nit wits and depressed artists and recovering drug addicts and socially awkward people, only God gets the props. It must have been his power. People will say, see, God wants to confound people with your life, but you have to let him.

He's a God that uses our weakness for opportunities to Show his power. 2nd Corinthians 12:9 says, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Your disability, divorce, bankruptcy, lack of education. Any weakness you feel you have can be used as God's canvas to display his power. You think that's ludicrous? So is a little boy's lunch. So is a rod.

So are five stones in a slingshot. So is God on a tree hanging there for you and me. Salvation came through what looked like weakness, humility, suffering, wounds, and death.

He is a God who uses pain. Isaiah 53 describes what the one who would come and change the world, the Messiah, what he would look like.

And it says, he had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him. Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men.

A man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquity. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.

Even God Himself did not use force or arrogance or the highest rung on a ladder or lots of letters after his name to do amazing things. He didn't use a perfect family line or a position of power or wealth or worldly ideals of strength to impact the world.

God used not a crib but a mantra. God used not a because I told you so authority, but I'll show you so humility.

God used not a long line of Christian nobility, but instead a family tree that was about as crooked as can be with harlots and heathens that birds his DNA. God used not a throne but a cross. God used not success but suffering. God used not a strong hand of punishment nor a power play.

But instead he laid down his life and his salvation Move that was well played.

And yet we think it's going to be by our clout or our titles or our awesomeness or our cool factor, our magnetism or our strength that does amazing things. Who are we kidding? What does God use to do amazing things? He uses wounds. Jesus wears them like a shirt on his back.

He wears the wounds that wounded you that wound others. And he says, with my life, these will not keep you from me. Your wounds will not have the final say. My wounds will have the final say.

My wounds will determine who you will be. God isn't running from your brokenness. He wipes brokenness all over himself.

Your brokenness didn't keep him from saving you and it sure as heck isn't going to keep him from using you to do amazing things in this world. Our not me's do nothing for this world. Our yes use are all we've got and that's all God needs.

Our not me's do nothing for people who want to end their lives. Our not me's don't give hope to those who've lost their. Our not mes don't fight for justice for people who are living in injustice.

Our not mes don't bring healing to the broken. Our not me's don't comfort the lonely. Our not mes don't feed the hungry. Our not mes don't preach good news to people who are desperate for it.

But our yes use God can do amazing things with those. This story in John 6 ends with thousands of people having their fill and there's more left over than they started with.

And Jesus says, let Nothing be wasted. So they gathered them and filled the 12 baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who'd eaten.

I think what strikes me most about this story is that Jesus used what this boy had. That's what Jesus does. He uses what we have, not what others have, not what we wish we had, not what we think we need, but actually what we have.

Our story, our experiences, our gifts, our weaknesses, our learning lessons, our mistakes, our pain. Nothing will be wasted. God doesn't need us to go out and get a better lunch. God can use what we already have to pull off something big.

But we have to hand it over for God to use this boy, he was going to have to hand over his lunch. And eventually he would have to decide, would he hold on to his fish and loaves for himself? Would he laugh off the whole suggestion?

Would he say, not me, not my lunch. My lunch isn't good enough. People will mock me.

This boy must have gone to the place where he held out his measly lunch and handed it to God, trusting that Jesus's power could do something with the little he felt he had. And the same is true for you and I. God will use your life to do amazing things, but you have got to hand him, friend, what you have.

So I'm going to pray for you now, God, we just reach out our hands today and we hand over to you everything that we have and everything that we have not.

And God, we believe by your power that you can take all that we have, even in our weakness and our inadequacy, and you can use it to do beautiful things in our lives. So we hand it to you in trust and faith. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

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