Recently, I went over to my family’s house and we found all of our home videos on DVD. My mom would video every holiday and event in our household. I appreciate it a lot more now that I’m older even though I used to get embarrassed. As I was watching one of the videos of me singing in the church choir as a kid, I noticed something. The camera was always on me. I was the center of attention. I was the main character.
Much like a fish in a fishbowl, I grew up inwardly focused and concerned with only my wants and needs. The older I get, the more I realize the world is much bigger than me and my experience. Living in the city has caused me to see just how many people there are and how each one has their own life, their own relationships, and their own problems.
There is a story in the Bible about a time when Jesus and His disciples experienced a problem. There was a great crowd surrounding Jesus late in the day after He had just finished teaching. Jesus’ disciples came up to him and said, “This is a remote place, and it’s already getting late. Send the crowds away so they can go to the nearby farms and villages and buy something to eat.”
But Jesus said, “You feed them.”
“With what?” they asked. “We’d have to work for months to earn enough money to buy food for all these people!”
“How much bread do you have?” he asked. “Go and find out.”
They came back and reported, “We have five loaves of bread and two fish.” Then Jesus told the disciples to have the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of fifty or a hundred.
Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftover bread and fish. A total of 5,000 men and their families were fed.” (Mark 6:35-43)
What stands out to me most about this passage is that the disciples were more problem-focused than God-focused. When Jesus commanded them to feed the people, their first reaction was to list the problems and all the ways that it wasn’t possible. They didn’t realize that the small amount they had, 5 loaves and 2 fish, were enough to feed 5,000 in the hands of a supernatural power.
If we are not careful, we can begin to sink into a fishbowl way of thinking. We believe the lies that tell us that our problems are too big, there is no way to accomplish our dreams, and that we just have to accept the current state of our negative situation. We become inwardly focused and our issues become magnified in the fishbowl.
Notice how after the disciples gave Jesus the 5 loaves and 2 fish they began to distribute the food to the people. They became less inwardly focused and they became more service minded. I have learned that whenever I get overwhelmed by my issues, the best thing that I can possibly do is put aside my pride, serve, and give to others. When I do that, it reminds me that my life and everything I go through serve a higher purpose.
The Bigger Picture: Often the best thing to do in the midst of our problems is to get out of our fishbowl by serving, giving, and allowing God to use our experiences to help others.
The Bigger Picture 