Faithful in Little

It was nearly five o’clock and the invitations all said seven. I hadn’t done my makeup, or hair, or started baking, or even finished cleaning. However I was sitting on my couch watching one of my favorite television shows that I had missed in the rush of the week and now that my husband had taken the boys for the night so I could prepare for my first youth pastor’s wives “monthly meet up” I had finally had the time to sit down.

Not that I truly had time for sitting, but it didn’t matter. I looked at the clock, calculated the time each task would take, and continued watching.

This, this is not me. I am prepped hours before with a bleached spotless house and an abundance of freshly baked goods sitting out on the table. I am put together and on task with each moment spoken for (and none of which that included television watching). But this day, this particular day, I was not this.

This night I talked myself out of doing anything at all because no one was coming, I was sure of it. Not in a “poor me” kind of way, but in a mysterious certainty that caused me to be completely at ease with the idea. I could have just sat there for hours, and truly I thought of doing just that but as the minutes passed, my position changed. I hadn’t planned this night for me; this night was me being obedient to God to start something that so many of us wives need but sometimes don’t even realize we want. This night was for them and if even one of the dozens that had been invited were to show I wanted to make them feel right at home.

So I baked and got dressed and did my makeup and waited… and then I did three loads of laundry and ate a few muffins and went to the mall to spend one of my gift cards. Because no one came.

I texted a friend who has been talking to me about starting this group for over a year now and she asked if I was discouraged and I surprised even myself when I quickly responded with a “no”. Because I wasn’t. I wasn’t discouraged.

I have recently become a firm believer in small beginnings, and I know for a fact that God is too.

All throughout scripture we find God using the things (and oftentimes the people) that the world has overlooked because they were of no great significance. As Alpha and Omega God has the incredible ability to see both the beginning and the end- so when God was looking at twelve men passed over for not being worthy enough or smart enough to be taught by any other Rabbi, He wasn’t just looking at their present conditions, He was seeing their future “could be’s”. And this, this is where I had failed for so many years.

We as humans are only capable of seeing the present. We see what is, and sometimes the “what is” can be so deafeningly discouraging that we lose our hope for the “what could be”. And while we sit there meditating on the lack of greatness in that solitary moment we give up on the future things we know we should do, or ideas we know we should press on with, because this one small beginning is nothing compared to the big dreams in our hearts. We convince ourselves, this must not be it. We must have missed it somewhere.

But I have another theory… what if the big dreams you are holding on to are locked away inside of those small beginnings that you are so desperate to forget ever happened?  

In Luke 19 we find Jesus sharing an interesting parable with the crowd that was following Him to Jerusalem. It was about a ruler who entrusted ten servants to each invest a pound of silver. The story gets interesting when the ruler becomes king and calls back the servants to see what they had gained from their investments. The servant who gained the most had something incredible in store for him- “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed. ‘You are a good servant. You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’” (Luke 19:17) Servant to governor just like that. Talk about rags to riches! It would be easy to read this story and say that God is only into results but you would be oh so wrong in that assumption. Because his results didn’t come “just like that”. His results came from working and being obedient and believing in the potential of that one pound of silver. That’s what God is into.

Working and being obedient and believing in the potential of.

Some of us are working our fingers to the bone with our one pound of silver (whatever your one pound or small beginning may be), considering throwing in the towel. But I am here to write to you today, “do not grow weary in well doing for in DUE SEASON you WILL REAP a harvest if you faint not.” (Galatians 6:9)

Do not grow weary with that bible club

Do not grow weary with that unbelieving family member

Do not grow weary with that search for genuine friendship

Do not grow weary with that small group

Do not grow weary with that dream in your heart… even if no one shows up

Do not grow weary.

If what you are doing is “well doing” and something God has placed on your heart- then do not by any means grow weary, because you just may be investing into the very small beginning that will give you a great harvest if you don’t stop. So don’t stop.

No one came this month, but that’s okay. I will do it again in October and again in November and again and again until the Lord says to stop. Not only will I keep holding these groups but I can guarantee you that one of these days I will be writing to say that “because I didn’t allow that first month to deter or discourage me, our group has now grown beyond what our house is capable of holding.”

Because that’s how it works.

Faithful in little, (working, and being obedient and believing in the potential of) until you are RULER of much.