How Do You Respond to Impossible Challenges?

“Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a large crowd was coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?” He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, about five thousand in number. Jesus then took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed them to those who were seated. So also the fish, as much as they wanted. And when they had eaten their fill, he told his disciples, “Gather up the leftover fragments, that nothing may be lost.” So they gathered them up and filled twelve baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves left by those who had eaten.” (John 6:3-13)

This story has four main characters: Phillip, Andrew, the boy, and Jesus. By learning about each of them we can learn about ourselves.

Phillip the math nerd

Phillip ran the numbers; his thoughts were probably something like this, “Let’s see…looks like about 5000 men, so, counting women and children, we would need to feed around 15,000. Of course we don’t have that much food here, so we will need to get carry out. As a minimum, we need one piece of bread and one sardine per person. If there are 20 pieces of bread in a loaf, we would need 750 loaves. At $2 each that comes to $1500. I think there may be 6 sardines in a can, so we would need 2500 cans. I would guess about $2 a can, or another $5000 for a total of $6500.”

Knowing  this cost was prohibitive, he reported back to Jesus, “It would take at least $6,500 to feed everyone just a little”.

Do you run all the numbers before trying anything new? I do. But what do you do when the numbers don’t justify the project? Do you give up or do you seek other ways to make the project work?

• My wife knew we didn’t have money in our budget for new deck furniture, so we quit eating out until we did.

Andrew the common sense disciple

Andrew wasn’t interested in the math; his thought process probably went something like this, “By checking around to see what food is already available, I can make a logical evaluation of what the situation looks like.” His survey was less than encouraging: five loaves and two fish. To his credit, he brought them to Jesus, but his assessment was discouraging, “what are they for so many?”.

Do you make conclusions based solely on the evidence at hand? Does your good common sense ever prevent you from trying something new? Do you ever think outside the box? Do you limit what you try to what you have tried before? Are you the person who says, “I tried that once and it just didn’t work.”?

• Many were convinced that running a four minute mile was impossible until Roger Bannister ran a 3:59.4 mile on May 6, 1954.

• The Wright Brothers, though taunted by “experts” who claimed that a flying machine was scientifically impossible, proved them wrong by inventing one that could fly.

The boy who gave what he had

The boy might have thought, “I don’t understand this talk about my loaves and fishes, but this man is with Jesus, so I am going to find out.”

Even if you don’t understand how the project will work out, do you volunteer to give your best effort anyway? Are you willing to lay your own ego on the line to try someone else’s idea (especially a boss’s idea) even if you don’t see how it could work?

Jesus: The boss

He probably was thinking something like this, “I could solve this problem all by myself, but I am going to involve my followers so they can learn more about problem solving.” He therefore solicited their help. They learned about their own limited thinking, they learned how to expand that thinking and they were able to share in the victory. And they learned to give thanks before they had a solution.

If you are the boss, do you go out of your way to make sure others share in the victories? Do you seek their involvement even if you don’t need it? Are you thankful even when the resources you need for a project don’t materialize?

Concluding thoughts

Because the math didn’t work, Phillip was convinced that the project could not be done. Andrew was also skeptical because he didn’t see how there could be enough resources to do the project. The boy simply offered what he had. Jesus gave thanks for the boy’s offering and a miracle resulted.

How do you respond to impossible challenges?

Readers: which of these characters do you identify with? How do you handle impossible challenges?  How could you do better?