The God of Little Things

I need to tell you a story that I think will inspire you as you step into the new year. It’s a story about how a big God is all about the little things. I learned this on Christmas morning, but the story actually began many months before then.

One of the opportunities I had been offered during 2019 was to take part in a coaching network that was offered within an hour of my home and at no cost other than the time to travel to the church once a month for the coaching sessions. Of course, this didn’t feel like a cost at all because I was able to sit for 2-3 hours every month with other pastors from around the region and receive the kind of training that made me wonder why I wasn’t paying for it. After all, most of the time when something is free you actually get what you pay for. But not this time. It was without a doubt one of the most beneficial things I did all year long and all of it was free (shout out to Pastor Jay Stewart and The Refuge!!).

Toward the end of the year, Pastor Jay made a simple remark: would we consider suggesting some other leaders who may benefit from the same coaching we’d received and would we be willing to give back so that the same training could be offered to other pastors? He suggested that we take a month to pray about it, but I sensed the Holy Spirit nudging me the minute the words came out of his mouth:

“Give your AirPod money.”

Without giving you more information than you care to read, part of our family budget (which we maintain through an awesome program called YNAB – You Need a Budget) is what we call Mad Money – an amount that we can do anything we want with, no questions asked. It’s a VERY modest amount – the B99 and I both get $40 each – and I had decided toward the beginning of 2019 that I would save half of my Mad Money each month toward getting some AirPods.

It had taken me 8 months, but I had just saved what I needed the month before the Holy Spirit nudged me. I gave it without hesitation and knew that somehow God would honor it. Either He was going to give me AirPods or take away any desire for them. It was the second.

He so completely took away the desire for them that when I opened my family’s gift to me on Christmas morning and found BRAND NEW AIRPODS inside the box, I didn’t immediately make the connection. But later that day I remembered that I had given all my Air Pod money away and still gotten AirPods!!

The point isn’t that God gives us what we want, but that God wants to be the gift we want. He wants us to be so in love with Him, so in tune with His voice, that we hear Him when He speaks to us and that we obey Him without hesitation or regret.

I’m not there completely – and I’d imagine you aren’t, either. But one thing I know: the big things that we all hope to see God do this year will almost always come in response to the small, consistent steps of obedience we can take daily.

I’m sure other pastors gave bigger gifts that day, and I’m sure that I could have found a way to give more, too. But the God who does big things was only concerned with my willingness to trust and obey Him with whatever He asked of me.

This year, be faithful in the small things. Do it without comparison or compromise. Do it knowing that obedience is never small.

I promise you that by the end of the year, you’ll be surprised at the big things that God will have done with it.

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