A Sacramental Life
When
Alice and I made our first trip to the state of Andhra Pradesh, India in 2003,
we brought with us a number of large pieces of luggage filled with important
things we were sure we could not do without. Books,bed sheets, toilet paper—we
didn’t stop to wonder how one billion people get by every day without these
“essential” American products.
We
soon learned. It’s easier however, to change shampoo than it is to change
assumptions. For, along with
Alice & Slum Children
our luggage, we also brought a fair-sized bag of
dreams—with unwavering confidence in our ability to actually make a difference,
and anticipation of a life filled with adventure. I was filled with hope for
what lay ahead.
Years
later, I find I have exchanged the attractive bag of dreams for a banged-up,
simple but sturdy suitcase with a broken zipper. Our perspective has changed,
and we have come to realize that our job is not difficult, but impossible. The reality is we simply don’t have what it takes to change
hearts and families.
But
not only is our task impossible, we’re asked to do it with lives that turn out
to be actually quite ordinary. We still have to take out the trash. Budgets, sickness, arguments, making meals,
etc. These all blend together into a
very ordinary life. Even the adventure of life in India fades with time. I went
with a vision of the possible and the extraordinary. Every day, I found myself facing the
impossible and the ordinary. The slick
bag of expectations meets the battered suitcase of life.
And
yet I have hope—hope that is stronger today than ever before. Why, because my hope no longer rests on my own
ability. It rests on Jesus. And as I look to Jesus, I see Him consistently accomplishing the
impossible through the ordinary.
Look
at the story of the feeding of the 5000 in Luke 9:1-17, and you will see where
a long day of ministry found the disciples weary and wanting to send the people
away. The crowds were hungry. The disciples didn’t have any food. But Jesus
simply said, “You give them something to eat.”
Imagine
yourself as one of the disciples: “Do you know how tired I am? This is
impossible! We don’t have enough time or money. All we have is a little boy’s
lunch. What good is that?” But Jesus
took what they had, blessed it, broke it and then used his disciples to
distribute the food in such a way that everyone left satisfied. In fact, not only did everyone have enough,
there was abundance.
There
was more than was needed. More than was
asked for. The impossible seemed to be
of no importance in His hands. Bread and
fish. The ordinary transformed by God and used to accomplish the impossible. This is my hope. It rests in my belief that God, in the same
way, can and will intervene in my impossible situations with extraordinary
grace, making it possible to live an ordinary, run-of-the-mill life for the
glory of God in a place like India.
This
is what I understand to be the “sacramental life.” A life so saturated with the presence of God
that the ordinary becomes holy and the impossible happens. It is a simple,
every-day life in the hands of God, blessed and broken and offered to others.
Feeding the Children
And
what is the result of this sacramental life? What happens when the ordinary stuff of life
gets into the hands of Jesus and is then offered to those around us? The meal of bread and fish caused the crowds
to proclaim, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” (John
6:14).
Every
day we walk out our front gates and face a multitude of harassed, helpless and
spiritually hungry people who have nothing to eat. We hear Jesus say, “You
give them something to eat,” and so we offer the few small loaves of bread
and fish that we have.
How
many people can we really feed? I don’t
know. But if we are willing to pursue
the sacramental life together, then I have every reason to hope that we may
actually find ourselves feeding thousands, because we were first willing to be
found in His hands.
Would you like to have a relationship with God?
