It seems impossible, but there is incredible power in small things.
As we go about our business, as we watch the news, and as we experience life, most of us have accepted the reality that those things that are big will be the winners. Billionaires will win out over millionaires, a 300-pound football linebacker is a good bet in a barfight, the state will win over a township in a legal dispute, and so on. Face it, when David faces Goliath, Goliath usually wins.
But increasingly, I am being reminded of the enormous power of the small.
We know this almost unconsciously, but we are prone to ignore it in our conscious decision making. Here’s what I mean: Elephants and whales are huge, but there aren’t huge piles of dead elephants or whales anywhere. Why? Because as soon as the large animals die, the small animals get to work. Lions, sharks and other predators take their turn, then buzzards, fish, and smaller creatures, and then, beetles and tiny fishes, and finally bacteria and other microscopic creatures set to work. And in this system, the web of life, each time the creatures get smaller, they grow greater in numbers. And while a handful of lions may feast on the carcass of a dead elephant, the number of bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic creatures number in the millions and tens of millions. We take them all for granted, but without them our planet would be overrun with dead things.
Change is like that too.
Sometimes change seems impossible. The task is simply too hard, or too big, or too expensive, and so change is left untried.
But small is powerful.
When great ships set sail from one continent to another, the most important person on the ship is the navigator. Over and over, history demonstrates that a tiny error in navigation, an error of one degree, or even a fraction of a degree, multiplied by a voyage of a hundred or a thousand miles, and the ship arrives far from its intended destination. In our era, as scientists consider how to protect our planet from potentially devastating, city-sized asteroids that may come our way in the future, the answer isn’t enormous rockets with powerful nuclear weapons, but early detection. If we can discover the danger early enough, small rockets, with tiny nudges, can redirect planet killing asteroids by a fraction, even hundredths, or thousandths of a degree and, over the course of millions of miles, the asteroid never even comes close to us.
As we approach the end of one year and the beginning of another, we often think of what we can do to make the next year better than the last. But change is intimidating. Our problems seem to be too big, too powerful, too expensive, or too difficult.
But remember the incredible power of the small.
Losing weight can seem impossible, but what about a pound a week? Even a half a pound per week means a loss of twenty-five pounds by this time next year. Drastic changes aren’t needed. A half a pound per week can be done, gradually, by eating just a little bit less and walking a little more each day and even then, you might have to work up to it a little at a time. Making big changes is hard, but don’t be afraid to make a little change today, and then a little more next month.
Saving for retirement sounds impossible. But don’t let the size of the goal scare you from starting small. Maybe you can’t afford to save hundreds of dollars a month. But can you, occasionally, give up your morning coffee? Or pack a lunch instead of going out to eat? Giving up a stop for a ($2.00) coffee, twenty days each month and banking that, produces almost $50,000 over thirty years at 7 percent interest. Packing your lunch two days each week and saving another $20 pushes that number to almost $150,000. That still won’t get you to a comfortable retirement, but one small change can motivate you to make another, and then another, and so on.
Growing our church and adding a hundred new members sounds impossible. But, like we saw in the previous examples, it’s our focus on the big things that often prevents us from seeing the power of the small things. No, we can’t plan a single event, or offer any kind of training that will allow us to instantly add a hundred people on Sunday morning. But, could you find the time to invite one person to have coffee with you this month? Could you join a new club, or commit to making one new friend in the next year? How hard would it be to do something nice for a neighbor or someone you know? Could you make some hot soup for a neighbor when they’re sick? There are thousands of ways that we can invest ourselves in the lives of the people around us.
But those small acts, done consistently, are incredibly powerful.
If each member of our church reaches just one person this year, we will touch the lives of more than a hundred people in deep and meaningful ways. And if only ten percent of those people choose to join our church, we will add ten new families.
Most likely, none of us will run for a national political office, or write a best-seller, or have millions of followers on social media. But just the same, we have the power to transform our church… even change the world.
We have at our disposal the incredible power of the small.
Join me.
Make this year, a year of slow and steady progress.
We can change the world.
One cup of coffee at a time.
_____________
Blessings,
Pastor John
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I know that a lot of people have never gone on a mission trip. And because I know that, I understand why people often seem puzzled by what we could possibly do there, or how they might ever be able to contribute if they went on such a trip. Despite my annual announcement that The Joy Center, our host in Big Creek, deep in the Kentucky mountains, always has a list of projects that need done, and will always find something for us to do regardless of who comes with us, and regardless of the skills (or lack of them) that we have. And so, rather than just saying that there are all sorts of things that need done, this year we made a list of all the things that we did, and a couple that were left undone when we ran out of time. What follows is a list of nineteen (19) projects that were on our to do list. Most of them got done, but a few didn’t. I’m including the projects that didn’t get done so that you might better understand how, if even one more person (like you) had gone with us, we might have been able to do even more.
parsonage.
even a pair of scissors. What’s more, for the last several years, we’ve somehow managed to take along a volunteer that loved to cook and who just took over our evening meal preparation. But this year we didn’t have anyone like that, so someone would always have to stop working an hour or so before dinner so that there would be something to eat when the rest of us quit for the day.
Pete and Emily Brewer couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to interview them or hear their story, but I am confident that you won’t hear another story quite like it.
We were cold.
But would be hot almost within the hour.
The fog was still liftng from the mountan valleys as we walked to breakfast just after dawn. There was a chill in the air and several of us had spent a fitful night tryig to keep warm in our tents. But as we walked to breakfast, we were also aware that soon, almost within the hour, the sun wouold rise above the mountains and temperatures would rise enough to make us sweat.
And so, as each of us dressed that morning, we had made choices. We were all faced with the same facts, but each of us had made different choices. One had long sleeves and long pants, another long sleeves and shorts, another long pants and short sleeves, and still another both short pants and sleeves. Would we be comfortablly warm now, and cold later? Or cold now, and comfortable later? Each of us knew that our choice was transient.
Discomfort was inevitable.
We were choosing the form of our discomfort.
And it was so ordinary that no one gave it a second thought.
But in other situations we seem shocked by it… and we shouldn`t be.
We wonder why migrants would choose to come across our border when they know that the journey is arduous, that the “coyotes” that guide them vicious, rape ordinary, and often detention when caught. The thing is, many are aware of the dangers before they begin but, when faced with daily violence, death and mayhem at home, they’ve chosen the most comfortable discomfort. The discomfort they face at home seems endless and unsolvable, but the discomfort on the road to citizenship, or even residence, in a foreign country seems like a light of hope at the end of a dark tunnel.
We wonder why young people who grew up in the church, and who believe that life begins in the womb, still sometimes choose to end that life through abortion. But often these young people, married and unmarried, are faced with impossible choices, none of which are good. While we may not agree with their choices, we should understand that they are choosing their discomfort. When every possible choice seems to be a path of pain, they must choose which path of pain seems ever so lightly less painful.
We wonder why people who have few posessions and little money make choices that seem wasteful and foolish. But they are doing the same thing. They are choosing their discomfort. It can easily be understood that although none of their choices are good, they choose a path that offers a little joy, however transient.
We wonder why our friends choose to vote for candidates that do not represent their values, or who are known to act in ways that are contrary to the interests of the voters. But the same principle applies. It is often the case that voters are fully aware of the candidate’s failings, faults, and voting patterns. But, believing that the other candidates are just as flawed, or who violate their conscience in other ways, the voters are compelled to choose their discomfort.
Which path of pain seems the most bearable?
Which uncomfortable choice offers a chance at hope?
I didn`t laugh at my friends on the way to breakfast because I understood that each of us, in our own way, was choosing the uncomfortable path that we though offered the least discomfort.
If we can understand that, then shouldn’t we extend the same grace to others who are making harder, more painful choices between their available paths of discomfort?
Isn’t that what Jesus taught us?
Each of us must make choices that guide us through paths of discomfort.
We should have the grace to allow others to do the same.
Friends…
…always choose grace.
Pastor Partridge 