Life Through the Lens: On beer, bread and potential

Kevin Schrapel reflects on a quote he saw outside a bottle shop.

Life Through the Lens: On beer, bread and potential

This post was contributed by Kevin Schrapel, and is the author’s personal opinion.

What could these grains have been? Photo: Tommaso Urli/Unsplash.

“Every loaf of bread is a tragic story of a group of grains that could have been beer.”

Noticing this sign outside a bottle shop, I smiled and thought, God has put some witty people in this world.

But what if the words went like this: “there are tragic stories of people who may never  be what they could have been”?

How often have you walked past someone and thought, “Why are they wasting their life sitting there?”

Have you walked past and considered, “There is someone who would have been born with much to offer; what went wrong?”

Or worse, do we not even see them?

The media daily displays lives shrivelled by circumstance, missed opportunity, disinterest, lack of ability, insufficient knowledge, knowledge withheld, a lack of support and caring … how long could the list be?

Perhaps that person has tried to stand tall but has been knocked down once too often and has become too tired to get up and try again.

Maybe his or her one helper kept walking.

If you are reading this and feel let down, knocked down, or just feel down and not sure if anyone cares, think about the people Jesus loved and helped to stand up: beggars with incurable diseases, fishermen, a religious leader, a soldier, and crowds of people like you and me.

Who knows what he might be calling you to be, to do?

Don’t give up.

Talk to him about your fears and hurts.

To us all, he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you; I do not give to you as the world gives; do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” (John 14:27).

God’s word, the Bible, also tells us, “Be strong and courageous ... The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you; do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 31:7-8).

Maybe we who can be guilty of walking past need to learn from the once well-known story Jesus told of the bloke who, after others had walked past, crossed the road to help someone from a different community who had been bashed up and ripped off.

It's called the story of the good Samaritan.

You can read about it in the Bible: Luke 10:25-37.

Perhaps we all need to talk to him, whether feeling down or walking past.

God bless.


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