Isn’t It Always the Small Things?

A lone gunman ends countless lives.

One rebel group terrorizes a dozen powerful nations.

A single decision derails a solid life.

One mosquito alters a generation.

A lone family member detonates an emotional explosion, rewriting a family’s story.

One wish from a dying boy unites a planet.

A cancer-laden cell.

A missing chromosome.

A wandering toddler.

A single predator.

A rebel voice in a crowd.

A single dose of heroin.

A relentless bully.

A broken heart.

Do you see the power of small things?

There is a sin we don’t name. A crime against our design. A rebellion against the message God’s communicated over and over. From the process of beginning each life with the meeting of a single sperm and egg to the sending of His Only Son to a small tribe wrapped inside a small package, He’s repeatedly emphasized that size is not an indicator of power, of favor, of influence, or of destiny.

Will we stand before Him on that great day when He asks us, “Did you believe the things I told you? Did you act in faith in my Word? Did you trust that I lived in you and through you?” and hold our hats in our hands murmuring, “No. We chose, instead, to believe

The mirror

Our bank accounts

Our location

Our birth certificate

The predictions other humans made over our lives

The whispers of our self-doubts

Our sales

The sizes of the crowds who agreed with us

Our comparisons

The accuser

Our attractiveness

The number of friends we could make

The size of our homes and cars

The length of our years

The grandeur of our church.

We allowed these things to tell us that our smallness stood in the way of Your calling on our lives. We allowed these numbers to overwrite the story You designed us to live and to tell. We allowed these measures we could see to overshadow the message you died to proclaim over us. The message that You are the Way, the Truth, and the Life, that You are the fulcrum on which our lives pivot, not these quantities we count more worthy by our actions, our attitudes, and our dreams.

How long will we ignore the truth? How long will we lead “what difference can one person make?” kind of lives when His truth buzzes in our ears like a mosquito we can’t slap away? To live as if we are powerless, as if our existence cannot have an effect, as if we cannot influence the story is to say God created a multitude of insignificant beings for no purpose other than to squander their hours and slip into eternity like winter moths fluttering around a porch light waiting to succumb to the frost.

You are only one. You are small and you have little. Are you His? Then, you are enough.

One is all He requires to fulfill His purpose for you, in you, through you. Imagine the force of Light Immortal channeled through a single life. Focused. Explosive. Laser-like. Surgical. Imbued with the power to change, heal, enlighten, lead, influence, protect, defend, and guide.

The powers of darkness carpet-bomb this one truth daily because if we grasped it, the world could barely sustain the impact. Every lone soul who believes God over their own smallness contains the power of a thousand suns.

We sit in our armchairs and cry foul against others who muddy their lives on the field before us, those who try, but fall and fail. We cheer each new champion as if God said to watch for One Large Soul who will come and make all the difference that needs to be made. As if God said our calling is to cheer or boo from the sidelines – where is that command?

We fail to see the grander stands. Zoom out now and notice your recliner is on the line of scrimmage and your inertia interferes with those living out the plays. We will answer not only for those sins we committed through our actions but how much more so for the lives we squandered through our LaZBoy theology of believing that size matters. The theology of waiting for the numbers to rise in our favor. The theology of when I’m bigger, then I will believe God.

James spoke the truth. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” James 4:17.

Do you believe God’s destiny is for you to squander your days believing nothing you do makes a difference? Do you believe the God who sees all doesn’t notice you? Do you believe He has no intention of loving your neighbor, touching your community, moving in the midst of your loved ones’ lives? Do you believe affecting their lives isn’t enough, so why bother with even that small act of love? Or do you believe that small things are only powerful in the hands of the evil one?

We are small, loved ones. Small like mosquitos, grenades, cells, chromosomes, eggs, sperm, atoms, infants, o-rings, choices, bullets, votes, nails, thorns, the human heart.

Small plus God equals a world spoken into being, incarnation, resurrection, redemption, eternal life. Smallness is no barrier to living in ways that change the world.

What are you doing with your small life? It’s the small things that matter, you know. It really is.