Little Things

            On our drive home from South Carolina last week, we listened to Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln. I learned some things I did not know about the events surrounding President Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. History is full of mysteries, and there are many things unknown to us… things that we will likely never know. I asked Joanne… “I wonder if the Lord will bother to let us know the answers to all the questions surrounding historical lives and events or if, in His presence, we will care nothing about the things that are behind us?”

            One of the things that struck me about the circumstances around Lincoln’s death is how just minor things – going/happening a different way – would have made a great impact. For example, President and Mrs. Lincoln could have chosen a different play to attend in a different theater (he deferred to her preference). This would have made things more difficult for Booth and protected the President better. “If only” the President’s bodyguard had been at his station, history may have been very different. Instead he was having a drink in a nearby saloon. Many of these things are always clearer in hindsight than in foresight. All the assumptions made come into question and under critical scrutiny.

            It is another reminder to us that small things mean a lot. The encounters and conversations of each day are much more than mundane exercises in social intercourse. Words and attitudes can change lives – for good or for ill. That’s a helpful reminder to me, because so often my life revolves around an invisible “bubble” of self-interest and awareness. I am not always thinking about the impact of my words and actions on the people around me. They can build up and be helpful, or they can tear down and be hurtful. Someone’s life can actually be changed. This can happen in spite of me (because I don’t realize the impact) or because of me (when I’m being intentional). At the other end of the spectrum is an attitude and approach that lets me think I can control everything by doing and saying the right things at the right time in the right way. This kind of thinking will just drive you crazy, though, because – as good as your intentions may be – your words and actions can never control everything to a good and happy end or result. There will always be many things beyond our control.

            My thought in this devotional is to be reminded that my words and actions – even when they are small – might make a significant difference in another person’s life and well-being. Therefore, it behooves me to pay attention a little more carefully to what I say and do so that it may positively impact people’s lives and circumstances. There’s an old saying, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” But I also think we should use caution not to overlook the “small stuff”. We have the opportunity to introduce Christ’s love into conversations and social interactions. May the Lord use what we say and do for His glory. All of it.

Colossians 4:6 (NIV) ⁶  Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Ephesians 4:29 (NIV) ²⁹  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

PRAYER:  Father, guard my lips and my actions. Let them build others up, and thus make a difference for eternity. Help me to be faithful in small things. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.”

Jesus Christ is Lord!  

Scott