{"id":7257,"date":"2021-09-19T19:25:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-19T09:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=7257"},"modified":"2021-09-19T19:25:08","modified_gmt":"2021-09-19T09:25:08","slug":"milk-for-the-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/milk-for-the-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"Milk for the Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Milk for the Fox<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bethany Kaldas<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

\u2018His lord said to him, \u2018Well\u00a0done,\u00a0good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things,\u00a0I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into\u00a0the joy of your lord<\/em>.\u2019\u2019<\/p>Matthew 25:21<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A\ncommon phrase I hear spoken in the church, especially in regard to service, is\nto remember that we can offer God nothing. After all, God is perfect, He is the\ndefinition of wholeness, completeness\u2014He does not need our service, it is we\nwho need His grace. This is very true, and it is especially important to\nremember when we are trying to perform acts of service (whether they are formal\nor informal). You\u2019re not giving God anything He couldn\u2019t accomplish without\nyour efforts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\nwouldn\u2019t blame anyone for, at times, finding this notion a little\ndisheartening. We may start to feel that, well, if my actions don\u2019t really make\na difference to God, then what\u2019s the point? Perhaps we can imagine that the\nworks of the greatest saints and prophets\u2014you know, the ones that parted seas\nand healed the blind and raised the dead\u2014they made a real difference. Their\ncharity mattered\u2014it had an impact on the world that is still being felt today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\ncan we do? Maybe we talk to children in Sunday school, knowing full well that\nevery word spoken has gone into one ear and out the other. Maybe we cook meals\nfor our families, which they\u2019ll enjoy for a minute and forget about the next.\nMaybe your friends come to you with a problem, utterly distraught, and you\nlisten and nod, trying to ignore that voice in your head that reminds you that\nnothing you can say or do will fix it for them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can\nall feel a bit futile, can\u2019t it? We try very hard to be useful, we put heart\nand soul into giving God our best, but it never seems to be enough. Like trying\nto create a masterpiece with broken hands, sometimes it feels like we never\nreally seem to be able to make anything beautiful happen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nAnthony Bloom\u2019s book, Beginning to Pray<\/em>,\nhe tells a story from Hebrew folklore about the prophet Moses and a humble\nshepherd. You see, this shepherd liked to leave out bowl of the best milk from\nhis sheep for God, and claims that God really does drink the milk, because when\nhe wakes up in the morning, the bowl is empty. He is happy with his offering\nand will work hard to continue to give it, he knows that God appreciates it and\nthat is enough. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moses,\nalmost amused by the idea that God could drink anything, considering He doesn\u2019t\nhave a body, basically tells the shepherd he\u2019s being silly and he\u2019s not\noffering God anything. Testing the theory, the shepherd stays out one night to\nsee what happens to the milk, and much to his disappointment, he sees that it\nis not God, but a hungry little fox who drinks his offering every night. Turns\nout he really wasn\u2019t offering God anything useful\u2014his service was meaningless.\nHe never really had anything to give. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nhe tells this to Moses, quite downhearted, Moses tells him to buck up\u2014he\u2019s\nlearned more about God now and that\u2019s a good thing. And yet, Moses is still\ntroubled by the shepherd\u2019s despair. He prays about the incident, and this is\nhow God responds:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Moses, you were wrong. It is true that I am pure spirit. Nevertheless I always accepted with gratitude the milk which the shepherd offered me, as the expression of his love, but since, being pure spirit, I do not need the milk, I shared it with this little fox, who is very fond of milk<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>Anthony Bloom,\u00a0Beginning to Pray<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\ndefinitely true that God needs nothing from us. Anything we offer to Him is\ntiny, perhaps insignificant in our eyes. And yet, even the smallest things we\noffer to God with genuine love are treasured by Him. And not only treasured,\nbut used\u2014multiplied beyond what we expect. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nbowl of nice milk was not needed by God, but it was needed by one little,\nhungry fox who, thanks to that shepherd\u2019s persistent acts of love, had a full\nbelly every night. The small things you do may seem unimportant, but no act of\nlove goes without consequence, even if its results are invisible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>C.S. Lewis,\u00a0Mere Christianity<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Our\nactions are like stones dropped in still waters, they have impacts we\u2019d never\nhave thought of and many more that we\u2019ll probably never know about, even if\nthey look small and inconspicuous. Too often, we assess the value of a deed by\nthe results that we can see. When we try to be kind, try to help, try to act, try\nto teach, and it seems that nothing has come of it, we think we\u2019ve wasted our\ntime and effort. It\u2019s not good enough for us, so it\u2019s not good enough for God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with everything we have done. In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being we must learn to be detached from the results of our own activity. We must withdraw ourselves, to some extent, from the effects that are beyond our control and be content with the good will and the work that are the quiet expression of our inner life. We must be content to live without watching ourselves live, to work without expecting any immediate reward, to love without an instantaneous satisfaction, and to exist without any special recognition<\/em>.\u2019<\/p> Thomas Merton,\u00a0No Man Is an Island<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

God\nworks in ways we do not see, and there was never a seed too small or a heart\ntoo frail for Him to use. A chance encounter with a stranger, a sympathetic\nword to a friend, a message of appreciation or a small act of service done when\nnobody was watching\u2014these are the work of the hands of Christ. These are the\nfoundations of Heaven on Earth. You have no idea the impact your choices can\nhave\u2014I can almost guarantee that you\u2019ve already changed someone\u2019s life in ways\nyou can\u2019t see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give\nHim whatever you can, no matter how broken and withered and small, and trust\nthat it is exactly what He was looking for. Sometimes it\u2019s awkward, sometimes\nit feels pathetic, pitiful, fruitless. But there are no ashes He cannot turn\ninto beauty, no loaves He cannot multiply, no bowls of milk He will not\nshare\u2026except the ones you never give Him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018He said,\u00a0\u201cBring them here to Me.\u201d\u00a0Then He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven,\u00a0He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>Matthew 14:18-20<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Milk for the Fox By Bethany Kaldas \u2018His lord said to him, \u2018Well\u00a0done,\u00a0good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things,\u00a0I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into\u00a0the joy of your lord.\u2019\u2019 Matthew 25:21 A common phrase I hear spoken in the church, especially in regard to service, is to remember … Continue reading “Milk for the Fox”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7258,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7259,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7257\/revisions\/7259"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}