Daydreams, Bread, and Boats.

One of my favorite movies has a character reciting three words, and the other actor comes along and says, “I love this kind of riddle.” These three words may seem like a riddle to you today, but all riddles become clear with context.

Daydreams are often underrated. I wish I still had more time to daydream. Although I am sure my college and seminary professors were not always so happy that I was daydreaming. There was just something about daydreaming that allowed me to enter an alternate universe. I could envision my world; however, I wanted to think about what new thing God had in store for my life. The funny thing is, most of the detail of my daydreams never turned out the way I had anticipated. Never would I have expected to meet my wife through a blind date. Never would I have expected her mom to be in one of my seminary classes a few years earlier. Never would I have expected to have my son born a month before my first anniversary. Never would I have expected to be a youth pastor, and to be in ministry in St. Louis.

Daydreams are rarely true, but they also distract us from what is going on in our daily lives. But it is more than daydreams that our minds can be in so many places rather than being engaged with what is in front of us. One word in a conversation can trigger something else in our minds. It can bring about a worry, or something else that we are hoping will happen. All it takes is one phone call to remind us of something we forgot about, and distract us from our current thoughts.

The disciples were on a path to follow Jesus. The days were long and they were probably tired. Jesus sent them in a boat to get some rest. But then a storm developed, and they panicked! The Savior of the world just sent them on a boat to get some “R and R”, and they were panicking about the storm. Scripture says they were focused on the loaves and their hearts were hardened. They still couldn’t figure out how and why Jesus fed the five thousand.

These men, although walking with Jesus everyday, had hardened their hearts because of a miracle?

Before we are quick to judge, how many things distract us from what God will do in our lives? It is easy for us to look around and wonder why God gave this to that person, or why we are struggling with that. Often I have looked at friends who seemed to have no struggles and wonder, “Why me, God?” We can have that same mentality as a church.  We wonder why that church down the street has so many members, or why people can’t see who we really are.

This week in worship we will talk about eliminating “the loaves” that cause us to daydream and lose our focus on our Savior walking toward us. The devil can use all kinds of things to distract us from the focus Jesus wants us to have and we can miss the boat!