rMag

Yeah right.

Many young Christians long for Christian “stardom,” desiring to do “big things” for God, and are often in sin when pride is the catalyst for the desire within them to be on that stage, literal or figurative.

I am continually discouraged by doing my “small things.“ I am constantly wishing that I was an intern for a Supreme Court Justice or traveling around the country on a speaking tour. Sometimes in my pride I believe that I would give anything to struggle through the hard thing of getting a book published. In my mind, that’s a “big hard thing.” All my “small hard things” – well, they’re just that – small.

No one wants to be known as the guy who is doing what the dictionary defines as “microscopic, miniscule, tiny, pocket-sized, little-bitty, poky, minor” and “insignificant.” But what we don’t realize is that is where we go wrong. We’re so worried about being “known“ by men. The problem is that we were not created to be known by mere men. Our aspiration should not be doing “big hard things” so that we can be noticed by those around us. When that is our focus and desire, we have run straight into the sin of pride – and those “big things“ mean nothing.

In contrast, our goal and our aim should be to magnify Christ as a telescope magnifies a celestial body. We want to be the one who shows those around us that that star may look small to us … yet through the lens of our lives you get a whole new picture. It’s still not the full image, but it’s a whole lot bigger than before. We want people to step back and say, “Wow! I never knew that thing I once called a ‘speck’ was something so much greater.” The praise goes straight to the One it was made for.

Regardless, the fact remains that it is discouraging not to be doing something “big.” Here are just a few principles to remember when we begin to feel that way.

The Focus

First, we should not be discouraged by “small hard things,” but rather we should be encouraged by the cross. Our focus should not be on whether or not the things we are doing are “big” or if they are “small.” Our focus should be on the ”biggest” thing ever done – Christ’s substitutionary (no, it’s substitutionary) death on a cross. Our identity and boast should not be found in “doing big hard things” or even “doing small hard things.” Our identity and boast should be in the cross alone.

Paul states it clearly in Galatians 6:14:

Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

John Piper explains in his book Don’t Waste Your Life:

That is, don’t boast in anything except in the cross. How shall we become so radically cross-exalting? How can we become the kind of people who trace all our joy back to joy in Christ and him crucified? Answer: The old self that loves to boast and exult and rejoice in other things died. By faith we are united to Christ. His death becomes the death of our self-exalting life.

When that becomes our all-encompassing passion, aim, and goal, the things we are doing are never small or insignificant. The aim of being radically cross-exalting is a “big hard thing.” Why? Because you must do it whether you are a pastor or teaching preschoolers. You must do it whether you are a plumber or a missionary, a student or a doctor. It matters very little what task God has chosen you to do. It is what you are doing with that task that makes it a “big thing.”

Alex King addressed the issue of small hard things in his article “Hard Things Come in Small Packages”:

Unfortunately, the pull of an oar doesn’t tend to inspire us in the same way rowing across an ocean does. Getting up at 2:00 AM [to edit a movie] doesn’t have the same excitement as making a film. And being polite to our family just doesn’t have the same feeling as being a world leader. But this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Instead of having an attitude like this, we should find the same inspiration and excitement in the small things, keeping our eyes on our destination.

And, I might add, keeping our eyes on Jesus and on the cross.

He continues by saying, “this is important because doing hard things that are large consist of doing many hard things that are small. Without doing the small things, we can’t achieve those huge goals.”

It’s not that those desires to do great things for God are bad or cannot be accomplished – it’s that we must be willing to accept the small things before we accept the big things. We must be faithful in all things, great or small.

The Harris brothers put the issue into perspective when they said, “I think in Heaven we will be surprised by some of the people God honors most. We won’t recognize their faces or know their names. They will be the quiet faithful with whom God is well pleased.”

Maybe that’s you. No one knows your name. You don’t have a blog. You don’t write. You don’t sing. You don’t speak to large groups. You are the one that Christ will use the greatest. I encourage you to keep on in those small hard things. Maybe it’s teaching young children. Maybe its cleaning up after a church function. Maybe its just being a friend to someone who has no one. There are so many small hard things out there. You can do it. Stay focused on the cross: the reason you continue to do these hard things. Without the cross, doing hard things is simply a way to better yourself. What we are crying out for is doing hard things for the glory of Christ. Remember the telescope? Be that telescope in even those small things. Those small things – those small magnifications – will show to the world how great our God is.

Do small hard things.

The Division and Paradox

There is an improper line between doing “small hard things” and doing “big hard things.” We have decided that some jobs are categorized as “small things” and others as “big things.” In reality, there is no division of “importance.” We need to understand that “small hard things” are “seemingly insignificant.” They seem to be unimportant because we have defined them as unimportant. They supposedly hold us back from our “full potential,” when in reality, many small things may make up one big thing.

If we have grasped what doing hard things means, I think that we may be on to something here in the realm of big and small hard things. There may be a great paradox that we are looking at. The “big hard thing” is in actuality made up of doing the many “small hard things.”

For example:

1. Getting up in the morning. That’s a hard thing for so many. It can help us identify sin in our lives as well – is your inability to wake on time pointing to a lack of self-control? Is it helping you see where your priorities are when you sleep in and miss spending time in God’s Word? Are in involved in activities the night before that keep you from God? Could it be that those activities are becoming (or have become) an idol in your life?

2. Saying a kind word to the person who always gets on your nerves. That’s hard. You’ve put up with them (“forbearance”), but you’re really about to blow up at any time. Could it be that you need to refrain from speaking unkindly about them to family and friends and actually say something kind about them? It could be as simple as that – yet it is so hard.

3. Standing up for what’s right. It may be cliché, but it certainly does not seem cliché when you are in that situation that causes you to stand for what you believe in. It may be walking away from gossip or a dirty joke. It may be speaking up for the person who is being trashed by your co-workers. It may be speaking in defense of the Bible, or of the unborn, or of the reason you aren’t going to see that movie. It may be something as huge as standing up for chastity or standing up for a friend. It can be small as well. Yet remember, many small things add up to a big thing.

4. Restraining the unkind word or sarcastic response. How many times have you spoken a word and wished that you could take it back? Both Proverbs and James has much to say about those who talk too much, about a loose tongue, and about how the tongue is like a fire. For example, Proverbs 12:6 tells us that “the words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them.” James warns us that “the tongue is like a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body” (3:6) and reminds us that “with the tongue we praise our Lord Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness,” (3:9) ending with the question “Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?” (3:11). What’s flowing from your spring?

5. Sacrificing your time. It’s hard to sacrifice your time for a family member, such as a younger sibling. That may seem small and insignificant, but we all know it stands as a hard thing. We want to do what we want to do when we want to do it. We need to be willing to do what we want to do some other time for the sake of another.

There are so many more examples, but there isn’t enough time. Each of us have our own “small hard things.” Your list could be completely different from mine.

Doing Small Things

“We enjoy the harvest, but we don’t enjoy sowing and cultivating good seed,” Alex and Brett Harris tell us in Do Hard Things. “We all want to do big and important things, but we tend to discount the equally important small things that get us there.” It’s just like Alex King mentioned with rowing an oar.

“Being faithful in the smallest things,” on the other hand, “is the way to gain, maintain, and demonstrate the strength needed to accomplish something great” (Do Hard Things, page 139).

I know it’s hard, it’s not fun, and it’s far from easy. But small things matter because in reality, they’re not all that small. They make up great things. And the people who do these small things are not small people. If we are following God’s call, we are a part of something great – each of us is taking part in “making much of” or glorifying God in everything that we do. Big or “small.”

Cleaning a bathroom to the glory of God is more important than giving money to help the poor for your own glory. That’s how it works. The first shall be last. The servant, the greatest. The small things – they will be the biggest things.

I know it’s hard, but when we realize that what we are doing, big or small, is not for our glory, it makes a whole lot more sense why we are in a certain period of our lives. It’s for the glory of God.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).