Midweek Faith Lift
November 17, 2021
Making the Most of It- Maximizing!
Rev. Deb Hill-Davis
“Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are, do all you can!”
Daily Reflection
November 9, 2021
A quick-thinking 9-year-old in Brockton, Massachusetts, saved her entire family after they were overcome by carbon monoxide. Jayline heard her father calling for help and, as she rushed to his side, he was overcome by the gas. She grabbed his phone to call 911, but it was locked, so she held it up to her dad's face to unlock it via Face ID. Five people were taken to the hospital, and everyone has recovered.
“Having the courage to come face-to-face with ourselves is the portal through which we can view the pristine features of our Original Face, which include the qualities of unconditional love, compassion, peace, joy, creativity, and contentment of being.”
– Michael Beckwith
Affirmative prayer: Everywhere I look, I see the face of God. I recognize pure Spirit in everyone and, in this awareness, I am surrounded by Infinite Intelligence. I give thanks to know that I am immersed in pure love and enfolded in unlimited potentiality. Thank you, God, forever. Amen.
“Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are, do all you can!”
And so we continue today with our study of the conditions for a miracle taking a deep dive into the story of the loaves and the fishes as described in Twelve Conditions of a Miracle by Dr. Todd Michael. We are exploring the fourth condition, that of maximizing, or as I like to put it, making the most of what you have! This is the story of Jesus as reported in the gospel of Matthew 14:13-23 where Jesus has attracted a crowd of 5000 people who are now hungry and in need of food. We have explored the previous three conditions for a miracle: emptying, aligning with Spirit, and during our last time together, the process of asking. Now we are into the experience of maximizing! How does that look, we ask?
Jesus has just told the disciples to give the people something to eat, and here is their response as translated from the original Greek: “But say to Him, Not we have here except five loaves and two fish. He however said Bear to me them here.” What a powerful exchange that is when you stop and look at it! The disciples are taking an inventory of the supplies and you can almost hear the under-the-breath muttering, “five loaves, two fish, that is NOT enough for all these people, what is he thinking, what is with this guy!” And rather than agreeing with the energy of “not-enough-ness” Jesus says, bring what you have to me, bring it here.
Wow, what a difference faith makes! What a difference motivation makes, just like Jayline in the opening story. She was, by God, motivated to save her family, so she spent zero energy in worrying about how she might do it. Her story and the actions of Jesus in this ancient story bring us right up against the energy of “I can’t do this” and “I don’t have what I need” and “I’m not good, strong, smart, resourceful enough” to respond to the needs of this situation. While we might say under our breath, “God, this is going to take a miracle” what Jesus demonstrates is how to respond to create that miracle. This is worth noting and learning from, just as the story of Jayline!
“Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are, do all you can.”
When you have the mindset of a miracle worker, you see all the resources that are present, the supply that you have and how does it look to you? It is not a dead end but a perfect beginning! You receive what the Universe has given to you and you put it to work immediately. No whining or hand wringing or pissing and moaning are needed to do this, friends! We are about the process of cultivating the mindset of a miracle worker, the mindset of Jesus, who considered his present supply, no matter how meager the world measured it, as the perfect place to start. However the world looks to us, we are at the perfect place to start.
The numeric symbolism is a lesson here for us as well, as the number 5 signifies what we know by sense consciousness, our limited but very human capacities. This is the consciousness that says, “Oh is that all! That won’t be enough!” The number 2 signifies our relationship with Spirit, the I-Thou relationship of understanding our Divine/human nature and all the energy and possibility that it holds. It is in bringing the two of them together, our sense consciousness and the power and presence of how we are an expression of Spirit that the realization of the miracle happens. And that is reflected in the number 7 in that it represents the number of human completion, which is exactly what happened: everyone present was fed and satisfied as the miracle unfolded. No one went hungry.
“Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are, do all you can!”
Sometimes, doing all you can with what you have can be a heavy lift, especially if you are caught in the trap of “not-enough-ness” that disciples seemed to have. And we can read of people who did remarkable things with very limited means and circumstances and still cling to the belief that they are exceptional and we are not. We are just ordinary, regular, people who don’t have that something special, that something extra that creates a real miracle. What we overlook is that there is so often a miracle in the very ordinary moments of life. There are often miracles in the most ungodly and unholy moments of life, too.
There is a story of a group of rabbis who were imprisoned together in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. They wanted to celebrate a Jewish holy day but could not afford to risk being detected by their captors. One of them was given an orange, which he then handed to a fellow rabbi with a blessing. That rabbi then handed it to the next one and so on around their circle. In the end, as it was passed to each one in turn with a whispered blessing, that simple orange became as sacred an object as the Ark of the Covenant in Jewish tradition. And then they peeled it and shared it, which was the most sacred holy meal they could imagine. What is the miracle in this situation, you might be wondering? The miracle is that the rabbis shared all these blessings with each other, this sacred orange and went undetected by their Nazi captors.
“Do all you can with what you have in the time you have in the place you are, do all you can!”
We are all called to maximize our gifts so that the energy of love, gratitude, and expansion of good increases and flows to all. No one benefits from our minimizing the gifts we have, including us! There are numerous stories and parables in the Christian scripture where Jesus illustrates the increase of supply, the increase of our good when we extend the little we have to the welfare and good of others. He also tells us repeatedly that when we are grateful and open to our good and to sharing it and using it, then, even more, will be given unto us. When we do not rejoice in what we have and use it to the fullest, even that little bit that we do have will be taken away. As Dr. Todd notes on page 83 of The Twelve Conditions of a Miracle:
If you are a good steward and consistently use what you have to the maximum, more and more will be diverted into the channels of your life. The universe is very careful. It hates waste. Those who use its precious energy with appropriate gratitude and care are invariably rewarded. Conversely, if you don’t use your gifts, you can expect to lose them.
In this process of using our gifts, we often come face to face with ourselves, as Michael Beckwith noted in the opening story. It is in facing ourselves honestly, in doing a searching and fearless moral inventory, as they say in 12-Step Programs, that we clearly see what is a gift and what is not. When we can admit our moments of petty jealousy, we gain the expansion of generosity of spirit. When we can see our grasping and craving of a talent or level of success we do not have, we are free to bless and nurture the talent and success that we do have and watch it bloom. When we can be present to where we truly are in our mind, body, emotions, and spirit, we are free to release what no longer serves us and grow into a new consciousness, a larger reality. It is here that the snake is our teacher in that when it grows, it sheds the old skin that no longer fits and learns to live in a larger more expanded reality of new skin, never trying to again fit in the old one.
The story of Jayline who had the presence of mind to hold the phone to her father’s face to unlock it is an example of maximizing which to that family was a miracle, no doubt. She was not filled with doubt, she did not hesitate and in that open and receptive state, a “divine idea” of facial recognition was right there, present in her awareness and she acted on it despite any fear she was also feeling. Thank you, Jayline for your inspiring act of maximizing your good and the good of your whole family.
So let us go forth and see the miracle in each face of God that we see! When we see it, we act in ways that bring about miracles in every way!
“Do all you can with what you have in the time you have and the place you are, do all you can!”
Blessings on the Path,
Rev. Deb