5/8/24

“Please do what God tells you to do!” So says the sign stuck to a pine tree at an exit of I-65 somewhere between Cullman and Birmingham (I shared a photo of it Sunday - it hangs over my desk at home). 

For me, it’s a good reminder of what I’m to be about. In John 15, Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” and “this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Pretty simple, isn’t it? Love God . . . Love Others. It always comes down to that. 

But sometimes, that may seem too simple. When we think about all that needs to be done in and to this world, simple actions motivated by love may not seem very . . . consequential. But, you know, small actions can have great impacts. 

I recently ran across the story of Tyrel Wolfe who, when he was seven, sent a Christmas box to the Philippines as part of a missions project. He included a picture of himself and a letter telling whoever got the box things about his life. 

He sent it . . . and forgot it.

15 years later, Tyrel got a message on Facebook from a stranger. The person seemed to know too many details about Tyrel’s life, so he initially thought it was an online scam.. 

Guess who it turned out to be! It was a girl from the Philippines who received Tyrel’s box 15 years before. Tyrel may have forgotten about it, but she never did and wanted to find him and thank him. They kept chatting more until one day Tyrel flew to the Philippines and when he and the girl - Johana Marchan - met, he fell in love and they eventually married. 

Today, they live in the US and have a little boy.  Something Tyrel did as a kid completely changed his life in ways he certainly never dreamed of as a seven year old! (if he had dreamed it, 7 year old Tyrel might have been horrified at the thought and never sent the box to begin with!). 
 

The moral of the story? Small actions can have great (and unexpected) impacts. 

In Zechariah 4, the people of Judah have returned from exile in Babylon. The temple lay in ruins, having been destroyed by the Babylonians some 70 years previously. Once the temple was rebuilt under the leadership of Zerubbabel, the old-timers who remembered Solomon’s grand temple wept – this was just a sad, small, shabby shadow of what had once been (Ezra 3). God spoke to the prophet Zechariah, saying: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.”  

Writing at the same time, the prophet Haggai said, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to you like nothing?” Remembering the former glory, their hopes of the temple’s  grand restoration were dying in the “day of small things.”

But notice: They were weeping; God was not. God  had big plans for His people – after all, he rescued them and brought them home. And God’s plans were going to prosper, as he promised them in Isaiah 55, “ . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” 

Just because things were going slower than they wanted didn’t mean God was done with them. There were going to be many “days of small things” along the way. In the meantime, they had to trust God. 

Even when Jesus came (400 years later!), things didn’t happen overnight. John’s dad and Jesus’ mom sang things like, “[God] has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty,” and “He has raised up a mighty savior for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,” but Jesus’ ministry wouldn’t start for at least another 30 years and 9 months!   And when the world did begin to change, it happened one heart at a time. It was slow, but real, transformation.

What’s the message for us? “Please do what God tells you to do,” and trust God for the outcome. God wants us to be content with faithful obedience in the small things. Sure, God wants us to have BAHDs (big, audacious, hairy dreams that only God can bring about), but at the same time, God wants us to remain faithful and content while devoting ourselves to what might seem small. Each little act of love matters. Do not despise the day of small things.

In this same chapter, Zechariah gives us the key to success in God’s kingdom: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4:6). Any “big things” that come through our human efforts can collapse quicker than they were built. But if we invite God to work through our small offerings, God’s purposes will prevail. In the meantime, He asks us to be faithful, one small step at a time. 

Because small actions can have great (and unexpected) impacts.

Blessings,
Pastor Terry