Small Things

Many (most? all?) of us have had or perhaps will have, a major life-changing experience.  More than one, for lots of us.  I’m not talking about getting married or having a kid.  Yes, those sure do change your life!  But I’m meaning things that you didn’t anticipate.  Things that, without your foreknowledge, divide your life into before and after.  Before and after the debilitating accident, the stroke, the death of someone central to your life.  I think for some, it’s going to be before and after covid.  And there are even worse examples. 

And also better ones.  For a woman with a hemorrhage and a man born blind, and countless others, it was before and after encountering Jesus.  Never the same, after. 

Some of us might have had an almost-as-dramatic experience learning about God’s promises, salvation in Jesus, a whole new life.  But most of us haven’t. For most of us, it’s been an accumulation of small things.  Sure, we can mark the beginning of a new life at baptism.  But even that was the next step in a process.

Do you  ever feel a bit cheated that you haven’t had a life-altering spiritual experience?  Being thrown into a fiery furnace, say, or witnessing a transfiguration?  I think that deep down a lot of us wish there would be something like that, to be our anchor.  But most of us don’t have such an experience, and an awful lot of the people we encounter in the Bible didn’t have one.  Most of them, like us, have days and years of the small things of daily life.  Good, bad, very bad.  Even things that create before/after change in our lives, aren’t in the same category as coming upon a burning but unconsumed bush.

Almost all of life is made up of a million little things.  A kind word said or not said, a harsh word said or not said.  A small effort to help someone made or not made.  Bible reading done or not done, engagement with fellow believers done or not bothered with.  A prayer made or not made.

There are businesses that depend on a few high-dollar sales.  Yachts for example.  Those businesses can be lucrative, however they can also go broke if something changes in their niche market.  The really big money is made by the businesses that only make a small amount on each sale, but they make millions of sales, and they sell something that weathers changes.  Walmart or Apple for example.  You see what I’m getting at?  If we pin our spiritual life to one or two big things…well those things might not ever show up.  And even if they do, are you really, really sure you wouldn’t repeat Israel’s experience, forgetting so quickly the crossing of the sea?

Much better to go for the million small things.  Small things we do, and small things we receive.  The unflashy answer to a prayer.  The unexpected boost from something someone says at Bible class.  The hit-the-nail-on-the-head scripture passage that seems like it was spoken directly to you.  The thoughtfulness of a loving sister or brother.  If we don’t ever voice the prayer, or do the reading, or attend the class, those things will never come to us.  With lightening bolts not very likely, if we let the small things slide, our spiritual lives are going to seem pretty empty.

Doing the small things requires some discipline.  Looking for the small spiritual boosts requires cultivating a habit.  Of course our flesh doesn’t want to bother.  So it becomes a daily, even hourly choice.  We would never consciously declare that we’re holding out for the lightening bolt, but perhaps that’s what our myriad small choices add up to.  That is not the way to get rich, spiritually.  Real wealth will come from the small returns on a million tiny investments.  Returns that can buoy us up, a little bit at a time, enriching our days and years.

Love, Paul

If you have any feedback, please contact me at: paul.zilmer@gmail.com