If my friend hadn’t been the one to ask the favor, I would never have said yes. The thought of speaking to a crowd of any size terrified me. My background was singing and, later, television—speaking is another animal altogether. But my friend was desperate.
“Since my keynote speaker dropped out with the flu, I’ve asked every female speaker I know, and they’re all booked!”
“Marlene, it’s not that I’m unwilling. I just don’t know how to do that,” I explained. “I’ve never done that in my life. There must be someone else!”
“Trust me, I’ve asked everyone I can think of. You’re the bottom of the barrel!”
With that rousing vote of confidence ringing in my ears, I headed to the event venue. I had pictured in my mind a casual affair with fifty or so sweet women who had very low expectations. Wrong! There were one thousand—no kidding!—beautifully coiffed and finely tailored women anticipating the motivational speech of the decade.
I stood at the podium and whispered to the Lord, “Under-catered!”
He whispered back, “What do you have?”
Let me explain our cryptic conversation. All four gospel writers include the account of Jesus feeding five thousand men—and goodness knows how many women and children—on a hillside one day, so it must be an important story. But exactly what can you and I learn from what happened as the sun began to set that day?
It was a spectacular miracle for sure, but I think there’s more to it. Matthew reported that Jesus told the disciples to feed the people. Luke mentioned Jesus’ instructions to arrange the crowd into groups of fifty. According to John, Jesus asked Phillip where they could buy enough bread to feed the crowd. Only Mark included this significant question that came from Jesus’ lips: “How much bread do you have?”
All that the disciples could see was what they needed; they missed seeing what they had. Was what they had enough? No! What you and I have is never enough. But when we give what we have to Jesus, He blesses it, breaks it, and feeds His people.
One more thing: Do you think the only person on the hillside that day with food was the little boy with his packed lunch? Of course not! There were moms and grandmas, and where there are women, there are snacks. Maybe no one else offered the food they had because they knew it wouldn’t be enough for the thousands gathered.
Look at your life right now. What can you take to Jesus? Do you hesitate because it’s not as much as someone else can give? Are you embarrassed because it can’t possibly be enough to accomplish the task? Hear this: Christ never expects us to bring what is needed. He asks us to give Him what we have, and He makes it work—often with leftovers.
When you add your not-enough to Christ’s more-than-enough, miracles happen.
Five Minutes in the Word 
[Jesus] said to [His disciples], “How many loaves do you have?”
Mark 6:38 ESV
It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:5–6
I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:12–13
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.
1 Corinthians 1:26–29
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23–24 NIV