Bigger.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to go with my politician friend to one of those big fancy political dinners.
How fun!

Because you don't just go to these kinds of things in your grubby clothes.

 

Politicians.

I am political to a certain extent. Pretty much because I love this country and care about what happens to it. So I vote. And I read up on the news. And I talk to people about it. And I am sure I have door knocked once or twice in my life. And I put signs up in my yard during election years.

Anywho, the political dinner was fun; I had never been to anything like that before.

I will admit I was taken aback for a little while, sitting in a room full of senators and congressmen and national committee members and media people and who knows who else.
It all seemed so big. There was that moment when I thought, “Oh my gosh, these people are the ones who make the laws. I see them on the tv. They are the ones making the speeches we criticize. What a big life they lead.”
Let’s not call it star-struck, even though it sounds like it. I have had moments of that before and I know what it feels like. No. Celebrities aren’t that big; they are scandal and “glamour” and interviews. But these people, they declare how you live your life to be legal or illegal in the eyes of the state. They are big; they put a label on what you do.

However, that thought didn’t last long. After the dinner a group of us—some politicians included—all got together to talk about the evening and—politics  (amazingly enough J ). Before too long it became obvious that, while some of these were elected officials who spend their life making or “breaking” laws, they were simply normal people. It was the end of a long day; they were tired, they were hungry, everybody really just wanted to go to bed.

Suddenly it all didn’t seem so big anymore. We were a group of people sitting in suits and dresses in a restaurant. The media didn’t follow them here. The podiums and stages and standing ovations were gone. It was as if we were a group of friends out to dinner on a Saturday night. I no longer felt like some special member of the group. I was just me again.

 For most of my life I thought I wanted a “big life.” A big ministry, a big business, a big circle of influence, etc. etc. etc.  I wanted to spur on the masses, change the lives of many.

I think it’s an ok desire.

A little out of touch with reality, but ok.

Because see, here is the reality: the masses are just a lot of individuals gathered together.

Simply put.

When you get right down to it, there is no such thing as “big” in the human realm.

Sometimes I look at people who go on all these big speaking tours, big missions trips, lead these big churches, and I can put it up on a pedestal, all the time forgetting that no matter how “big” the trip—whenever you get where you are going, all you do is meet and help and effect different INDIVIDUALS, who are just like those individuals in your local church. I can fly all over the world to do something great for God, but really, when I get there what do I do? I hang out with the locals for a few weeks.

The global church, the global ministry, whatever, is made up of local churches, local ministries, local people, which are all pretty much like each other. All the people have issues, all the masses need to eat, all the groups need the same truth of the gospel.
Period.

I will never forget this one night a few years back. I had just received this pretty great award for something and there had been interviews and accolades and ceremonies. It was quite the day; I had done what I set out to do. But later that night, I went home. So did everybody else. And as I was getting ready for bed—in the same way I had the night before (the night before “the big day”)—I said to myself, “Wow. I guess I still brush my teeth the same way.”

I knew then that it didn’t matter how many awards and praises I had won, it didn’t matter how many trips I got to take, how many speeches I made, how many people knew my name—I still brushed my teeth the same way. No matter how BIG my life and my days looked like at that time, the most basic things about me—my personal hygiene—didn’t change.

Funny, really. Because the other night in a room full of senators and then afterwards in a restaurant with congressmen and committee members, those people who make all the big decisions and have all the big speeches in front of the camera, all I could think was, “He is going to get to his hotel room tonight and brush his teeth. I guess no ones life is really that big after all…”

When I think back to how I wanted such a big life in those early days, I could look at where I am now and feel like I am not doing much. I lead a small life and small Bible studies and I write a small blog and I have a small business and a small circle of influence.

Yet. There is something in me that says maybe it’s not so small. Because what in the world is “big” anyway?
If the masses are made up of individuals, then it doesn’t matter how small the number of individuals is that I affect—I am still reaching the masses.
Because there is no such thing as “the masses.” People don’t go to heaven in groups. People’s lives don’t get changed all together. Even revival only consists of individuals who have all been individually met by Christ.

For as big as God is he comes on a personal scale. Never more. Never less. He comes for you. He will meet YOUR needs. He doesn’t herd you together with all the others like cattle. Remember those 100 sheep? “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4)

Jesus will always go get the ONE.

In church this weekend we had a missionary from Laos speaking and at the beginning of the service he passed out this:

Do you know what this is? That little dot on my hand?

It’s a mustard seed.
I had no idea how small it was. Not big at all. But look what Jesus says:

“Another parable he put forth to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.’” (Matthew 13:31-32)

Isn’t that awesome? Small things (which is all that really exists in the world) are big things.

Which is suddenly when it all made sense and when my heart finally calmed down: Amongst created things there are no big things and there are no big lives, just lots of little seeds and lots of little days planted and lived with faith that the King of the kingdom—the only Big thing in all the universes—will do what he wants with it.