Little Things

God doesn't call us to be faithful in the big things without calling us to be faithful in little things first.

Sometimes I think it is easier for me to trust God with huge things than it is to trust Him with mundane, everyday things. It would be much simpler for me to believe that He wants me to go pick up my life and relocate to another part of the world. It is a lot more difficult for me to believe He wants me to go to a meaningless recital at 7:30 on a Sunday night that I had no intention and even less desire of attending.

I don't know why this is. Is it because we believe God should only be concerned with big things? Is it because we think He only notices the larger things? Why do we put God "outside a box", so to speak? Maybe (and this convicts me a little) it's because big things don't happen often and little things happen every day. Maybe it's because we would like it if God only told us things once every few months or so. Maybe the little things are easier to trivialize to the point where we have given ourselves every reason to hold onto them as our own instead of surrendering them to Christ.

I would rather go to Haiti for a month than send a text to somebody I would rather not talk to. It is easier to feel called to a church plant than to walking down the hall to talk to that one person you don't get along with so well.

In both Matthew 25:14-28 and Luke 19:11-26, Jesus tells two parables that are very similar about three servants who are given charges of various sizes. The two servants who are responsible and even proactive with their talents or minas are praised and then given big responsibilities. "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'" (Matthew 25:21) God doesn't expect us to move mountains; that's His job. He might expect us to go to the mountain. And He might expect us to do the talking. But before we go about telling mountains to move, we should probably start telling ourselves to move. Faith for the little things leads to the bigger things for a reason, no matter how much more convenient it may seem to just do the big things for Him and handle the small things ourselves.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a concert to attend. :)