When Logic Is Right, Yet Not Enough

A Reflection from John 6

A new year often brings fresh resolutions. We promise ourselves to try harder, work more consistently, manage our time better, and become more disciplined. Many of these intentions are good. Thoughtful planning and personal effort are not wrong; they are often necessary.

Yet, at the beginning of a new year, something subtle can happen. Our confidence quietly shifts from trust in God to trust in our own determination. We begin the year leaning heavily on effort, strategy, and self-control—while prayer becomes secondary.

At the same time, many people carry a different struggle. Instead of confidence, they feel incapable. Responsibilities feel overwhelming. Callings feel larger than their ability. The question beneath both confidence and fear is the same: What are we leaning on?

Why the Crowd Followed Jesus

John tells us that a large crowd followed Jesus “because they saw the signs He had performed by healing the sick” (John 6:2). The crowd followed Jesus with expectation but not necessarily with understanding. They were drawn by what Jesus could do for them.

This is not unfamiliar. We too can approach God primarily for outcomes—for help, provision, or visible results—rather than for trust, obedience, and transformation. Later in the chapter, many in the crowd would turn away when Jesus spoke of deeper commitment.

A Question that Creates Tension

When Jesus saw the crowd, He asked Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (John 6:5). John adds that Jesus asked this to test him, for He already knew what He would do.

Philip scans the crowd. Hundreds. Thousands. He does not panic. He calculates. His answer is careful, measured, honest: “It would take more than half a year’s wages…” Philip is not faithless. He is realistic. He names what everyone else is thinking.

Philip’s response was careful and accurate. He assessed the size of the crowd, calculated the cost, and concluded that the resources were insufficient. Philip was not careless or faithless. He was logical. He gave response many would applause for his calculation.

Yet his answer reveals something important. Philip addressed the problem but did not yet acknowledge who was asking the question.

Yet John tells us something Philip does not yet know: Jesus already has a plan.

The question was never about bread. It was about dependence.

Leaning on Understanding

Proverbs 3:5–6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” This verse does not reject thinking or planning. It warns us against leaning, placing the full weight of our confidence, on our own reasoning.

Philip leaned on what could be calculated. Jesus was inviting him to trust beyond what could be measured.

This is where many New Year resolutions struggle. We either rely entirely on our effort, or we feel discouraged because we know our limitations too well. Both responses lean too heavily on self.

A Small Gift, Quietly Given

Then the scene shifts. A little boy steps forward. No speech is recorded. No calculations are shared. He holds five barley loaves and two fish—hardly worth mentioning in a crowd this size. Yet he gives them.

He does not reason whether they are enough. He places what he has into Jesus’ hands. Faith, in its simplest form, often looks like this—quiet, unremarkable, unmeasured.

The miracle does not begin with abundance. It begins with surrender.

Abundance with Care

Jesus gives thanks. The bread is distributed. The crowd eats until satisfied. And when the moment could have ended in celebration alone, Jesus gives another instruction: “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.”

The One who created abundance also honours what remains.

Nothing is wasted - not the loaves, not the offering, not even the disciples’ limited understanding. Philip’s calculation exposed human limitation. The boy’s gift revealed faith. Both were taken up into God’s work.

A Lesson from Nehemiah

Nehemiah offers a helpful balance. When opposition arose, he says, “We prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night” (Nehemiah 4:9).

Nehemiah planned carefully, but he depended deeply. He prayed and acted. Faith did not replace responsibility; it guided it.

Renewed Thinking

Paul writes in Romans 12:1–2 that transformation comes through the renewing of our minds. A renewed mind does not ignore reality, nor does it deny limitations. Instead, it begins with God’s sufficiency rather than human inadequacy. Renewal of the mind is not merely a change in what we expect God to do, but a change in how we understand who God is.

A renewed mind learns to say, “I do not know how this will work, but I trust the One who has called me.”

For the Year Ahead

John 6 reminds us that God often allows situations where our logic reaches its limit. Not to shame us, but to teach us where true trust begins.

Some of us enter the year confident in our plans. Others enter it aware of our weaknesses. Both are invited to the same place: dependence on God.

Logic may be right, but it is not enough. We need to trust God and depend on Him, always.