When I was a Chaplain at Union Rescue Mission sometimes men would come into my office and pour out a horror story to me. I would sit and listen. While I listened I would pray “When this guy gets done he will expect me to have something reasonably inteligent for me to say.
Every time when he finished I had something meaningful to say. Most of the time what I ended up saying what I had to say it was something I myself needed to hear. Sometimes it was so helpful to me I wished I could have taken notes on what I was saying so I could remember it.
Over the years I learned to think of the boy who had a totally inadequate lunch if 5000 people were going to be fed. I often wondered if the boy had said “This is my lunch . If I give it to you all these people will still won’t have enough to eat and I will be hungry.
That thought gave me courage to offer my pitifully inadequate little offering to a hurting person. That gave me the courage to offer skidrow people my inadequate words to make the miracle of multiplication possible. I never got over seeing myself as a little boy with five loaves and two fish.
George Caywood 