Luke 9:12-Now the day began to wear away, and the twelve came and said to him, “Send the crowd away to go into the surrounding villages and countryside to find lodging and get provisions, for we are here in a desolate place.” 

Echoing what PH preached last Sunday regarding “Pandemic fatigue”, where society at large has become frustrated over being confined amidst the constant threat of getting sick, life has changed dramatically around the world…
But as Christians I cannot help think that the Lord is calling us to a place of renewed faith and purpose, in what His goal of leading the many “sheep” out in the world to His Son Jesus Christ.  But of course the Lord is calling us to be His ambassadors and vessels of mercy to do so…(John 10:16, 2 Corinthians 5:20, 2 Timothy 2:21)
Much like the disciples in the passage above, we too can find ourselves among others and feel like we have nothing to offer them because we’re tired!  So with a heart that has no desire to serve and provide, we too can desire the crowd to go away because we are in a desolate place, ie. COVID, or something else…
But this response from the disciples was “on the heels” of Jesus doing a miracle that would explode His fame among the people, because this is right before He fed more than five thousand people!  It was as if Jesus wanted the disciples to know one thing about their limitations in doing anything for people, that we are limited but He is not…(Mark 9:23)
Though everyone is feeling the effects of change and fatigue from it, I pray that like the miracle of the five thousand, we don’t stay in our natural limitations and the frustration of “desolate” circumstances.  But seek God and obey in what He asks, because obedience is in the direction of faith and miracles, while our natural perception lives in the opposite direction of limitations and frustration. 
Fight to walk in the light of Christ in these dark times, we all need to see Him, make time for the grace to overcome-In His Love, Ld