The Zone Gathering

By Joseph Llobrera
Living Out Social Justice

This is Part 12 in our leadership lesson series on Service. Today, Joseph Llobrera gives us an honest but challenging glimpse into own personal journey of understanding and demonstrating God’s heart for the poor. To get involved with Joseph’s work or group Living Out Social Justice, email him or check out the group’s website.

I still remember looking around the room and sensing in others much of the frustration I was feeling. It was late in the spring semester of 2005 and our social justice community group had just concluded one of our challenging and convicting discussions about global poverty and injustice. All throughout the semester we were discovering God’s heart for justice and His call to us - His children - to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute, to defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9). We are called to respond to a world broken by poverty and injustice with acts of love and mercy, just as God showed us through Christ. We knew that there was so much to do, but where and how were we supposed to start? The feeling of being overwhelmed, of being powerless, was paralyzing.

Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!” Then Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up. “There’s a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that with this huge crowd?” (John 6:8-9)

We’ve all heard or read this story many times before. The people are hungry; a boy gives up his lunch for a good cause; Jesus performs a miracle; and everyone goes home happy (with doggie-bags full of leftovers!). I rarely stop to reflect on what Andrew says and the attitude he’s expressing. Even Matthew’s account of this miracle omits it. Yet how often do I hear myself repeating those very words - “what good is that?”

Sadly, in my own day-to-day life, I find myself playing the part of Andrew, not the young boy. I hear the calling to serve others and respond with God’s love, but so often I just feel frustrated by situations where it seems like the only possible thing for me to do is to pray.

“But what good is prayer?” I remember hearing this exact question during a conversation I had with others in the group two summers ago. We had been showing up for some of the “Worship in the Spirit of Justice” gatherings held during that summer that were meant to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur. At the time, there were only a few dozen or so people showing up. You really had to dig deep to find stories about Darfur in the newspapers. Here we were, meeting, singing songs of hope and offering up prayers of intercession. But the question kept nagging - what effect were we having, really?

God has been teaching me a lot about my pride and need for humility. He’s been calling me out on my need to measure the effect I’m having on a situation. I’m a little embarrassed, but in my head, I do sound a lot like Andrew did – “Why bother, if I can’t see the (immediate) impact I’m having? Is it really worth my time, if I can’t make a substantial impact?”

But it’s not about me. It’s about Him. God has to constantly remind me that my ways are not His ways (Isaiah 55:8-9). My measure of success, of progress, is not the measure that God uses. My timeline is not God’s timeline, either. I want to see results of my efforts, yesterday! This summer, I was humbled when I attended a rally for Darfur. This time, it was on the National Mall, with people numbering in the tens of thousands and national media coverage. Even George Clooney was in attendance! I confess that the issue had fallen off my radar screen. But God was moving people to action. There is so much more that has to be done in Darfur, but for me, that moment at the rally was a reminder that God can take something so small and seemingly insignificant and multiply it.

So as we learn to exercise our gifts and share our blessings by serving others in our community, I pray that we don’t let pride, frustration, pessimism, or a sense of our human finiteness get in the way of being obedient to God’s call. Poverty, homelessness, hunger, disease – all of these problems seem so imposing and so persistent. However, if we offer up our service as an act in obedience, like the boy with the loaves of bread and fish, then maybe, just maybe, we’ll be blessed and see a miracle. I love how Gary Haugen puts in, in his book Good News about Injustice: “How kind of Jesus to include the boy and the disciples in his miracle. Surely he could have done it differently. Surely he could have commanded the heavens to unload manna and quail right on top of everybody. But how beautifully he included the boy’s tine offering… …what a wonderful, life-changing day for that boy to be part of Jesus’ miracle” (p. 100-01).

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 10:12 am and is filed under Leadership Lessons, Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.