Why do you treat your servant so badly? Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Our readings today present us with two opposing pictures of dealing with issues/problems. On the one hand, we are presented with Moses and the children of Israel in their sojourn in the desert. The Israelites are complaining to Moses because times have become hard: not only are they feeling the discomfort of the desert environment, they have also to make it out with scarcity of food and water. They are even wishing that they were back in Egypt where they had varieties of food. They have even gone as far as ridiculing the manna that God has provided for them. Moses, obviously tired and sick of their complaints, turns to God in complaint. He too wishes that God would strike him dead because bearing on his shoulders a people who are grumpy and unsatisfied has become too much for him. On the other hand, we find Jesus and the crowd. Jesus is also confronted by the plight of the crowd, and moved by pity, he wants to provide for them. At Jesus' disposal is two fish and five loaves of bread, an amount far too less to feed the crowd. But unlike Moses and the Israelites, Jesus doesn't complain (but the apostles do-they ask Jesus to send the crowd away). Jesus knows that God is the provider, and he turns to God for help. And the first thing he does is to blesse God. He blesses God for the five loaves and two fish that God has already provided. He doesn't complain about the crowd and how he was to feed them. He thanks God for what God has already provided, knowing that God was able to do more. This is what Moses and the children of Israel forgot to do. They were too busy complaining to even think of what God had already done for them. They forgot that the God who had freed them from the Egyptians and provided them with manna could also provide them with cucumbers and onions that they were badly missing. These two pictures are presented to us to help us evaluate how we respond to challenges. Many times, we find ourselves reacting like the Israelites (and the apostles too) did. When challenges come our way, we become quick to forget about what God has already done for us, choosing instead to worry and complain about the seemingly insurmountable task that lies ahead of us. Our challenge today is to cultivate within us the attitude of Jesus: to be appreciative of God's blessing in our lives in the face of challenges and problems. We have to let our faith and trust in God guide us in those tumultuous moments for miracles only happen when we let God take over.