Little Things

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" (Jn. 12:24).
Jesus spoke the above words in reference to His then-imminent crucifixion. A single seed of grain is a small thing; likewise, the Passion seemed at the time an insignificant event to the world at large. Shattering as it was to those close to the situation, thousands of "troublemakers" were subjected to the same sort of brutal execution in the first century. Nothing seemed all that exceptional about Jesus's death; it was His Resurrection that turned Christianity into a world-encompassing movement. Still, it didn't take His followers long to realize that the Crucifixion had tremendous significance of its own; without atonement for the sins of humanity, Jesus's coming back to life would have been a noteworthy miracle, but His people wouldn't have been much better off eternally for it.

Obviously, no other human being can redeem the world singlehandedly--and anyone who sincerely believed God had given him or her that assignment would quickly be referred to a doctor. Still, many Christians seem to think that only "major" accomplishments "count"; and too many of us turn bitter or develop inferiority complexes if God gives us only "small" assignments. "This woman wrote fifteen bestselling Christian books; I just enter visitor addresses into the church database." "That man is an internationally known preacher who's converted thousands; the only person I've ever led to Christ is my seven-year-old daughter." The complaint comes in a hundred forms, but its basis is always the assumption "God must not think much of me; He never gives me anything important to do." Or we may turn that attitude on others: "He's only the church janitor.... She's too disabled to do much for God.... How can anyone get into a real seminary with just an inner-city background?"

We'd do well to remember Someone who was only a carpenter, had a hick-town background, and, once upon a time, didn't seem very important to the higher-ups. He may be doing great eternal works through the "little" deeds of the church janitor; He wants to do great things through all of us.

Drips and drops of water,
Falling from the sky,
Grow to floods and oceans
As the hours pass by.

Little, ticking seconds,
Passing by ignored,
Grow to hours so quickly,
Soon a squandered horde.

Little acts--of kindness
Or of selfish greed--
Set whole lives' directions,
Written in each deed.

Do not scorn things tiny,
Nor despise the small:
They may grow to great things,
Touching each and all.

Just One Degree of Difference

Mark Twain wrote, "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is... the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." The same principle applies almost everywhere in life--"one tiny" difference can turn out to be a huge difference. Five degrees is the difference between a healthy body temperature and a high fever. One millimeter's rise can lift a flooded river over its levee. And if you try to jump a ditch twenty feet wide and twenty feet deep, and fall short of your target, it won't matter whether the downward drop starts after two feet forward or nineteen feet eleven inches--the final stop will be just as painful.

Several Bible translations, including the King James, render King Agrippa's words in Acts 26:28 as some version of "You almost persuade me to be a Christian." Well, "almost" isn't enough. Many people have gotten to the verge of giving their lives to Christ, lost their nerve at the last second, said they needed time to "think it over," and forgotten all about it. Ultimately, they lost much more than their nerve. But the unsaved may not be the only ones to weep tears of regret on Judgment Day. How many have trusted Christ to redeem them but have never taken an opportunity to do anything significant for Him? How many of us will really hear Christ say, "Well done, good and faithful servant" as we enter into Heaven? Might not some of us be greeted instead with a sad, silent look, and the painful realization that after we were born again, we remained infants the rest of our lives (cf. 1 Cor. 3:11-13)?

Ultimately, Christ will wipe every tear from our eyes (Rev. 21:4). But in the meantime, He wants us to dry a few tears here on earth. We may find in Heaven that the most honored saints are those who cared enough to give their lives to "little" acts of service, acts that passed on to touch thousands.

One degree of difference in our attitudes can make a world of difference.

Just one degree of difference turns a simmer to a boil;
Just one degree of difference turns cold water into ice;
And, as sure as crops and flowers will take root in fertile soil,
Just one degree of difference can extract a heavy price.

As solid turns to liquid, and the liquid into gas,
With gradual increase in heat to past a certain point,
So, with "just a little" sinning, bit by bit, one day we pass
The spot, without our knowing, where all life comes out of joint.

As gas returns to liquid, and the liquid state turns firm,
When, growing slowly colder, it drops past the keypoint spot--
Any heart that slowly hardens from its love of God will turn,
Perhaps to one day hear those fatal words, "I know you not."

And likewise, but one tiny act of will may stand between
The life as "lukewarm Christian" and the one that does great things;
If we spurn God's patient calling, if our fear just keeps us green,
We cheat ourselves of knowing all the fullest life He brings.

Just one degree of difference brings a boil or starts a freeze;
Just one degree of difference can mean choice of life or death.
Just one tiny speck of difference can divide resolve and ease--
Just one degree of difference: small, but vital as each breath.