One more post from the end of March that never got posted...
So… March is over. What happened?! The 8 week partial with no vacation days that I was not looking forward to is over and I’m down to 2 ½ months left in my adventure here. Let’s start with some of my favorite quotes from the past two weeks.
First, from 8th grade:
Me: Alex, are you being punished for something?
Alex: No I’m not getting punished…well, yes, but here’s what happened, Miss Janet saw me on the camera just standing while the others were making trouble so she punished me for secondary character flaw. Does that seem fair to you?!
And from 6th grade:
Me: Raquel, I think that since Jimena came to this class your behavior has suffered some in class.
Raquel: Well, Miss, Jimena is like a disease…
Sayuri: MISS!
Me: What?!
Sayuri: He’s calling me pronouns!!!
(Gotta love those crazy kids and their flawless English.)
Anyhow, my devotional thought for this month… The small things matter. I got to thinking about this as I’ve been trying to work on some of the spiritual disciplines these past two months. In our society, we pay so little attention to the small things. Decisions, choices, responsibilities, disciplines… the small stuff I just don’t pay much mind to because my thought is that it isn’t going to make much difference. What I am beginning to understand is that the Bible teaches us something very different. The little stuff affects everything. A few quick Scripture references…
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ Matthew 25:21
"When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. The LORD’s anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God." 1 Chronicles 13:9-10
I think that I have spent a lot of my spiritual life sitting and waiting for something big and exciting to come along. Or at least something bigger than the everyday stuff. But what have I been doing with the little stuff? Cultivating a prayer life? Memorizing scriptures? Seeking God’s will in my daily schedule? Turning off the TV to focus on someone else for a few minutes? Have I ever lived as if any of the little things mattered? Occasionally, but I think trying to explain those small choices to people sounds trite often times. I see someone making those small decisions well and think they are just trying to be holier-than-thou. What a judgmental heart I can have sometimes. But the truth is I think all too often, “In the grand scheme of things this doesn’t matter, why should I bring Jesus into this and risk offending people or sounding like I’m trying too hard?”
Here’s the conclusion I am coming to: unless we give the little things over to this picture of eternity, this vision of the kingdom, then we are never going to find ourselves in a place of surrender in the big things. I am never going to become a servant willing to go anywhere for Christ, if I cannot learn to set aside my agenda to help one of the girls from the hogar with their homework for an hour. I am never going to have an intimate relationship with Christ unless I learn to not let my schedule, TV, my attitude, my whimsical desires, my worries about the future, my frustrations, steal it from me.
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