"Bring Them to Me": What to Do When We Are Afraid to Take That Next Step

“Bring them to Me.” This is what Jesus tells His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew when they tell Him that they only have five loaves and two fish with which to feed the vast crowd of five thousand. We all know what happens next. Jesus takes what the disciples have and performs the miracle of multiplying it, making enough food to feed the crowd as well as have twelve baskets left over. What does this part of the story tell us? It makes us realize that we shouldn’t be afraid to plunge ourselves into the service of God, no matter how unworthy or poor we think we are. God will always take our efforts, no matter how small we think they are, and make something out of it that gives Him glory, as long as we have faith and trust Him at every step, being obedient to what He asks of us.

God told St. Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Of ourselves, we are all insufficient for the work of God because of the weakness of our fallen human nature. But it is this aspect of ourselves that causes the power of God to be manifested the most to others, since it becomes apparent that there is something more at work than just our mere human abilities. We have only to open ourselves up to the grace of God and let it work within ourselves, giving to God our weaknesses, fears, and doubts and letting Him take care of everything. We also use what little we have and bring that to God, letting Him turn it in to something great if it His will. Mother Angelica, when starting EWTN, had $200 and only a garage-turned-studio. She stepped out in faith, however, and now EWTN is the largest religious media network in the world, broadcast in multiple languages in over 150 countries and territories. It doesn’t matter what we do or don’t have, what matters is that we obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit and let Him work in our lives, giving Him what we do have so that He can do what seems impossible.

Stepping out into the unknown without much to work with can be scary, but it is in those moments that we are called to trust God and bring what we do have to Him, letting Him do the rest. We must remember the miracle of the loaves and fish and know without a doubt that if God can feed a crowd with five loaves and two fish, He can take our weakness and what we have and turn it into something great for His glory.