Your Field Of Impossibles

Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him. 

Turning to Philip, he asked, 
“Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?” 

He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do. 

Philip replied, “Even if we worked for months, 

we wouldn’t have enough money to feed them!”

‭‭John‬ ‭6:5-7‬ ‭NLT

Testing. It’s what is commonly used in schools after learning new information. The teachers want to see if you really are understanding the lesson at hand. Jesus, the Great Teacher, did the same. He often had little pop quizzes for His disciples to see (and to show them, as well) where they were truly at in the learning process on Kingdom Life and Kingdom Thinking. 

I love the conversation Jesus had with Philip as recorded in John 6. Jesus asks Philip a question but absolutely knows the answer already. He seems to ‘play dumb’ just to see what Philip would say. And Philip’s response is probably not much different than what ours might be. He looks at the situation through a human perspective and answers based on logic and man’s own resources. He assesses that even with all their efforts, it can’t be done. Jesus was asking him a question that didn’t appear to have an answer. To Philip, he was staring at a field of impossibles.  

Well, the conversation continues as another disciple chimes in and says, “There’s a kid over here with a brown bag lunch...but yeah, that’s not going to help.” Oh, but that’s not how Jesus saw it. To Him, He saw the Father’s Provision through the offering of a young child. Jesus saw the solution - and it wasn’t going to be logical.

Now, consider the situations in your own life. Are there circumstances or problems that don’t seem to have a logical solution? Things that, when you look at them from a human perspective, can’t be resolved by human effort? I’m thinking all of us probably have at least one. We all at some point, like Philip, look out on our own field of impossibles. 

In these areas, Jesus would love to flip your thinking. He’d love to offer you a solution that you haven’t considered. He’d love to show you that His way of tackling a situation is not like yours. His way doesn’t make sense and doesn’t depend on you making it happen. He’d love to show you what it looks like to depend on your Abba, your Daddy, your God. He’d love to show you how much He can be trusted. He’d love to show you that HE is enough. He’d love to show you that He is able.

And boy, is He able!

Let’s look at the rest of the story...

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?” 

“Tell everyone to sit down,” Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. (The men alone numbered about 5,000.) Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish. And they all ate as much as they wanted. After everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, “Now gather the leftovers, so that nothing is wasted.” So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten from the five barley loaves.”

‭‭John‬ ‭6:8-13‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Bam! Jesus comes through! But He did it HIS way - because that was the only way it was going to work! And let’s take note. He didn’t just satisfy the immediate need. He went above and beyond and made enough for left overs!

So as you look at your own impossibles, don’t give up just because there’s no logical solution. Instead, consider that this could be God wanting to show off a little. 😉