🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

Imagine... Political chaos is on the rise. Justice is at an all-time low. You're hungry and crippled by a reckless kind of hurt - for your family, your future, and humanity itself. You don't see a way for things to be different.

You hear there's a man who performs miracles. The neighbors say He's heading to a desolate place. There's nothing there for anyone, but there's nothing to stay for either. Almost 20,000 people are already there when you arrive. You strain to see the man called Jesus from tiptoes in the back. Compassion radiates from Him. It's palpable, and you never want to stop feeling it. Jesus locks eyes with you and holds you in His gaze. And somehow you know He sees every single person there just like He sees you.

Jesus heals, teaches and loves all day without taking a break. The sun is setting, and His friends are whispering. Everyone is too tired and too hungry in the middle of nowhere. No one had a plan beyond getting to Jesus.

Jesus is the plan.

He takes the scraps you bring and invites you to sit down for a feast. Five loaves and some fish given to the Father keep breaking and increasing simultaneously until the multitude is full. There were leftovers, for heaven's sake. The weak went home strong - healed, fed, hope restored.

Even when it feels like you're empty, and the world is destroying itself... remember the plan. Jesus is the plan. Show up with what you have. A scrappy, broken heart is enough. Your bitterness, confusion or numbness is too. Put it in the Father's hands, the only place where breaking, increasing, healing, loving and eternal salvation happen all at once. And you might just walk away with leftovers - for heaven's sake.

Listen to "Fishes and Loaves" by Josiah Queen.

Scripture references: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:31-44, Luke 9:12-17, John 6:1-14