Whenever I watched a Hallmark commercial, my eyes would swell up in tears. I cried easily when my feelings were hurt. Throughout my life, I’ve been called “too sensitive” or told to “get a thicker skin.” It bothered me that I felt more deeply than others. For a long time, I thought my sensitivity was a weakness in my life.
However, over the years, I’ve grown to see my sensitive heart as a love offering to God. Family members and friends confided in me as I listened with my heart. I’ve cried with my friends when they were hurting. People shared with me that I was a good listener. They felt encouraged as I showed them empathy and compassion. What was once saw as a limitation in my life, I started to see how God used my sensitivity to minister to those around me.
In John 6, the disciples immediately saw the limitations of feeding 5,000 people. They didn’t have enough money to buy food for them. Andrew, one of the disciples, found a boy who only had “five small barley loaves and two small fish” (John 6:9, NIV). He asks, “how far will they go among so many?” (John 6:9) In the disciples’ eyes, feeding 5,000 people seemed impossible.
However, Jesus saw the possible. He had a vision of how he would feed the 5,000 people. Jesus used the boy’s five loaves and two fish to do the impossible. “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish” (John 6:11). Jesus fed the 5,000 until they were full. There were even leftovers. What was once seen as a limitation in the disciples’ eyes became a beautiful display of God’s love, power, and provision for those 5,000 people.
Even though there were people who saw my sensitivity as a limitation, God had a vision to use my sensitivity to show His strength and grace in my life. “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
How can God work through someone like me that cries at the drop of hat or has “thin skin?” Like the boy who offered his five loaves and two fish, I offer up to God my sensitivity as a way for Him to show His love, power, and provision to minister to His people. I offer up my listening ears and my sensitive heart to show empathy and compassion for those who are hurting.
What are the “loaves and fish” we can offer up to God today? I pray that we can trust God to display His love, power, and provision to those around us as we offer up the “loaves and fish” of our lives to Him.
Connect with Susan:
@susaneparkwrites
About the Author:
Susan Park is a Christian Korean American writer who loves encouraging women to co-create with God in their creative work. She finds joy in connecting with other creative women and praying for them. She loves encouraging them through Scripture and with words of hope. She is a fiction writer and is currently working on her first novel. It is about a second-generation Korean American college woman set in the 1990s. Susan lives in the Chicago area and is married to her wonderful husband of eighteen years. She has three lovable boys. Susan would love to connect with you through her website at www.susanepark.com, on Instagram @susaneparkwrites, Facebook @susaneparkwrites, or on Pinterest @susaneparkwrites. She would love to hear from you!
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