She raised her hand with tears in her eyes and said in Spanish: “It’s funny how God someone sends a person from thousands of miles away to deliver a message that you know was meant exactly for you”
This past Sunday was our last full day in San Andrés. The 17 days we spent there were full of rest, fellowship and gifts from the Father. We were showered with blessings—from free meals at the best hotels on the island to lessons from American missionaries. Though we were put on San Andrés to minister to the community there, we couldn’t help but feel like we were the ones being ministered to.
As part of our second week on ministry, our host asked someone to preach at church on Sunday. I felt like the Lord was calling to to share a message, but couldn’t figure out what he wanted me to share.
While I was preparing for these 11 months away from home, I asked my 88 year-old grandma to write me one letter a month—I knew that it would be a little piece of home that I could look forward to. While my team and I were sitting at a coffee shop trying to process what exactly the Lord was teaching us, I took out my Grandma’s letter for August and read it. She wrote about August in Minnesota—about how the apples, plums and corn is coming in on the farm where she lives. My Grandma then ended her letter with the 23rd Psalm.
- Psalm 23: 5-6: “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
I immediately knew that this was the message that I was being called to preach. I started to work on my sermon, focusing on how our figurative “cup” from the Lord can sometimes seem the be overflowing, while other times it feels empty.
All of us have a cup within us. Sometimes, that cup seems to overflow. When it’s overflowing, we long to share the love of Christ with others. When our cup is empty, we feel abandoned. We feel like the Lord isn’t blessing us, we feel like He isn’t answering our prayers and we feel like we can’t trust all of our lives in his hands. No matter how we might feel in that moment, the Lord longs to fill your cup to the top so you can overflow over and over and over again.
To illustrate this, I focused on the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000. In Mark 6:33 we read, “Now many saw them going and recognized them, and they ran there on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them.” Jesus greets the people on shore, talking with them and teaching them. The story continues on in Mark to say this: “And when it grew late, the disciples came to him and said, “this is a desolate place, and the hour is now late.” Send them away to go into the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” But He answered them “You give them something to eat” (Mark 6: 35-37).
What Jesus and His disciples were craving most was rest. Jesus’ disciples had just come back from ministry—they had just been called to “healed the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons” and they wanted some alone time.
The Disciples were drained—their cups felt completely empty.
What’s worth noting is that Jesus’ cup also felt empty. Right before Jesus feeds the 5,000, He learns that John the Baptist was beheaded. John the Baptist was one of Jesus’ good friends! He baptized Jesus, he was His cousin & John was killed in cold blood. Jesus was human—he felt the same emotions as we do. Jesus felt pain. Jesus felt grief. Jesus felt sorrow. Regardless of how empty Jesus felt, he still performed a miracle.
Jesus took 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, said a blessing, and fed 5,000 men. At the end of this story, Mark notes: “All ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets of full broken pieces and the fish. And those who ate the loaves were five thousand men.” (Mark 6:42-44)
Not only did Jesus feed 5,000 people, but he blessed them with 12 extra baskets of food! This is a tangible example of the Lord yearning to make our cups overflow.
After Jesus feeds the 5,000, He walks on the water. If you’re overwhelmed with the storm and your cup seems empty, remember that Jesus sees the wind, the storm and the waves. He walks on the waters that we’re overwhelmed with.
The Lord calls us to trust Him. It’s easy to ask God for things that we’ve seen Him do before, but true trust in the Lord comes when we pray for the big things. Heaven’s resources are bigger than we could EVER imagine.
In 2 Kings 4, we see how the Lord’s resources are immeasurable. When a woman loses her husband the government comes to take her two children as collateral. The only thing of any value that the woman has in her home is a jar or oil. The prophet Elisha tells her to go and get vessels from her neighbors and pour the oil into the vessels until it stops flowing. The woman begins pouring the oil from one small flask into all the other vessels that she gathered from her neighbors. Miraculously, the oil continues to flow until all vessels are filled. After this, we read “She came and told the man of God, and he said “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts, and you and your sons can live on the rest” (2 Kings 4:7).
Jesus has us in the palm of his hand now AND in the future. All we need to do is trust that our cup will continually be filled with His love.
When the woman raised her hand after my sermon was over, I heard the Lord telling me that He will use me over these next 11 months. I struggle with thoughts of inadequacy & comparison between myself and others. The truth is, we’re all inadequate when compared to the King of Kings. None of us can be compared to the Lord because we all pale in comparison. However, if I continue to trust Him & listen to what He tells me, I know that this adventure will literally change my life. I pray that you all realize how the Lord continues to fill your cup on a day-to-day basis.
It’s hard to believe that month 1 of the Race is coming to a close. I’m so thankful for the time that my teammates and I were able to spend on San Andrés—we leaned in, we built each other up, and we formed an unbreakable foundation to build upon over these next 11 months.
