In a recent Laudable Linkage post, I shared an unfamiliar quote from Elisabeth Elliot: “If your life is broken, it may be because pieces will feed a multitude.“

I don’t remember where I saw the quote, and whoever shared it didn’t list the book or program it came from. But I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Elisabeth is alluding to what we call the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:1-14). As you recall, people streamed to hear Jesus preach. He had compassion on the multitude and asked Philip where they could buy food for the crowd. John tells us Jesus “said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do.” Philip responded that two hundred denarii ( a denarii being a day’s wage then) wouldn’t be enough to give everyone even a little. Andrew said a boy had a lunch of “five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?”

What happened then?

Preparation in faith. Jesus had the disciples seat the people just as if they were going to have a feast.

Gratefulness. Jesus thanked His Father for what they had.

Blessing. The account of this miracle in the other gospels say Jesus blessed the food.

Brokenness. The other three gospels also say Jesus broke the bread before passing it out.

Distribution. Jesus gave the food to the disciples to hand out to the people.

Sufficiency. “They all ate and were satisfied” (Luke 9:17).

Abundance. Not only did everyone eat their fill, but there were enough leftovers to fill twelve baskets of broken pieces–enough to feed many more.

We hear a lot of lament these days when people feel they are “not enough.” I always want to say, “Of course we’re not enough!” Paul writes, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us” (2 Corinthians 3:5).

But Paul goes on to say, “Our sufficiency is from God.”

When we give what we have to Jesus–whether it’s money, time, counsel, a listening ear, a word in due season, or whatever–and He blesses and breaks it, it can feed many.

We don’t have to wait for perfection. We’ll never reach it in this life.

We don’t have to bemoan what little we have. He can work with it.

We don’t have to compare ourselves to those who have more (time, money, talents, skills, etc.). Jesus commended a widow who gave two small coins because that was all she had.

We don’t even have to wait until we “have it all together”–God can use our incomplete and broken pieces.

And often those broken pieces nourish others, who then minister from their broken pieces, multiplying God’s grace far beyond what we can see.

Paul said he came to the Corinthians “in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:3-4). In his next letter to them, Paul wrote. “He said to me ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

We don’t have to be sufficient. God is. And He can bless and use our weaknesses and broken pieces to minister grace to others.

(I often link up with some of these bloggers.)