Do Something Small...

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches~ Matthew 13:31-32 

Like most women of my generation, I was immersed from birth in the message that I could do anything I wanted to do and become anyone I wanted to become. Some of my earliest recollections involve my parents reminding me, in almost reverent tones, that if I studied hard and did well in school I could grow up to be a doctor or a scientist or the first female President of the United States.

 To be perfectly real with you, I was far more interested in acquiring a Barbie Dream House and becoming a princess. The notion of transforming the political and social landscape of America never entered my head.

Girls were not the only ones in the seventies and eighties encouraged to dream big about life; boys and girls alike were encouraged to think big about their futures. We were frequently reminded by parents and teachers that we would change the world if we were willing to work hard and dream big for our futures.

The “think big, dream big” message was not limited to schoolchildren.  Fondness for big thinking made its way into the church world around the same time. With the birth of the first megachurch in the 1970s and the success of evangelists like Billy Graham and Rick Warren, every church was advised to grow big and every Christian exhorted to dream big about what God wanted to do with their life.

When I trained for ministry, big thinking dominated the instruction I received. I was encouraged in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to nurture every ministry I was involved in into something bigger. Bigger was, by definition, always better than anything small. I bought into the “bigger is better” way of looking at ministry, until recently when my perspective was challenged in a big way. No pun intended. Well, okay—maybe a little bit of a pun was intended.

I just finished The Grasshopper Myth: Big Churches, Small Churches and The Small Thinking that Divides Us by Karl Vaters. To be perfectly honest with you I didn’t really choose to read it. I read it because my senior Pastor bought it for me and e-mailed it to my Kindle. Because he did everything but come over to my house and read it to me I felt obligated to give it a shot. It turned out to be one of the best things I’ve ever felt duty-bound to read.

 The writer does not criticize or condemn big churches. He is clear that big churches have their place and meet many legitimate needs within the body of Christ. That said, Vaters does a fantastic job of challenging the notion that bigger is always better. He argues persuasively that the never-ending quest for “butts in seats” and “bucks in the offering” in our churches and ministries has limited our effectiveness because we have been guilty at times of focusing on increasing our numbers to the exclusion of meeting the spiritual needs of people.

 His assessment opened up a whole new world of thinking for me, and frankly most of it was unpleasant and extremely convicting. I was left wondering how many Christian leaders (including myself) have been responsible for causing folks to feel that small contributions to the Kingdom are insignificant or even pointless. I also wondered how many precious saints of God have given up on making a difference because they know that they will never be the next Beth Moore or Joel Osteen.

As I pondered all this, I was struck with the insight that the people who have affected my life the most meaningfully are people that most of you have never heard of. The godly men and women who invested in me were not attempting to change the world with their actions but ended up altering my life significantly simply by being obedient to God in the small things.

It hit me that if all of us would commit to doing some small things for God really well and really often we might just bring about the change that we have all been longing for. So today, in honor the sweet, mostly overlooked saints who have impacted my life for the better I want to encourage you to do something small for the Kingdom of God today. I have complied a list of seventeen small things you can do that will make a huge difference in someone’s life. 

Befriend a single parent

Read a child a Bible story and give them a cookie and a hug afterwards

Listen without judging

Make a meal for a shut-in

Forgive someone

Visit an elderly person

Pray for someone who no one else is praying for

Be kind to someone who clearly doesn’t deserve it

Become an expert on a book of the Bible and teach a class

Visit your neighbors

 Share your faith 

Volunteer at a school or a homeless shelter

Commit two hours each week to ministry in your local church

Buy a homeless person a really nice lunch

Invest in the life of a teenager

Make friends with someone who is different from you

Repair a relationship

Recently I heard a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. that resonated in my sprit because of its raw validity:

“Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service... You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love.”

Mr. King understood that in God’s estimation and economy it’s the small things that make the greatest impact. It’s faithful people with hearts full of grace and souls generated by love, men and women who freely and joyfully do small things in season and out of season, who make the biggest difference and reap the greatest harvest.

Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin~ Zechariah 4:10