Enough
Jesus
assembled the “original 12”, and pointed
to a world hungry to hear good news.
Then he gave them these unorthodox marching orders:
“Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising
campaign before you start.
You don’t need a lot of equipment.
You are the equipment.”
(from Eugene Peterson’s ‘The Message’
Matthew 10)
A different paraphrase might read:
Don’t obsess over funds, and don’t overpack.
Fear not, doors will open.
You have what you need, for with me, you are equipped.
In my own spiritual journey, I have learned and
re-learned this truth.
I’ve learned that I am, like the undereducated,
diamonds-in-the-rough famous 12, capable of being
salt and light, capable of bringing encouragement
to the overwhelmingly discouraged.
All because I am in God’s transforming presence.
And that is enough.
It’s a theological spin on an old saying: With
God’s help, just be yourself.
In my early days of learning pastoral care skills
with those who were bruised and hurting,
I was taught to be present, to be caring, to be
available.
(This was another way of saying that “I am
the equipment.”)
When I polled advisers for specific words to say
in difficult situations, I was told,
“Go, not with quick answers to the unanswerable
questions,
but with open hands and an open heart.”
How the newly appointed apostle must have inwardly
queried:
“Where’s the sales pitch?
What are the exact words I’m supposed to use
to convey a message of hope?
Don’t we need to practice this on each other
first?”
So now I think of people who come to me, knowing
my profession as a hospital chaplain, asking for
a crash course in how to do crisis ministry…
hoping I’ll provide them a computerized check-list
of everything one is to do to
connect deeply and spiritually with others.
Instead, I think I’ll simply point them back
to these profoundly
simple marching orders from Jesus:
Go, just be yourself, trust Me, and always remember
you are the equipment.
Spread the message of the peaceable kingdom.
Tell others that God is here and now—within
each of us, not out there for a select few.
And that is enough.
