# Small Things SISTER TO SISTER Language: en Author: by Sheryl Zeiset Lebanon, PA Original issue: The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Winter 2021, Number 4 Source pages: 20–21 Read article: Original PDF: Winter\-2021\-Remnant\(3\)\.pdf [The Heartbeat of the Remnant, Winter 2021]() Have you ever tried to change the world? I have\. As a teenager I dreamed of the daring exploits I was going to do for God\. As I set the table in my parent’s house, I waited for the day when I would be able to do greater things—things like setting up house in Africa, speaking strange languages, and leading people to Jesus\. The thought of living in a mud hut and dodging venomous snakes seemed thrilling\. And then, part of my dreams came true\! I left all I had ever known and had an adrenaline\-fueled landing in an African country\. I tried to change the small world I was in—that God\-forsaken village full of drunkenness, broken marriages, fights, and neglected children\. Daily I felt the angst of being so busy with “insignificant,” earthly tasks and wondered how to make a difference\. Then suddenly, our labors were abruptly ended by burn\-out and a host of government suspicions\. None of this was in my dreams\. I still ask the same question, “God, how can I make a difference?” The neighbor calls at the door\. The laundry lady needs her pay\. Lunch needs to be on the table in 15 minutes\. Our fifth grader needs help with multiplying fractions\. The sky fills up with dark clouds and the clothesline is full of laundry\. I wipe the baby’s nose for the umpteenth time as she sits on top of the table disrupting her brother’s books and papers\. I bake bread, make yogurt, and churn butter, and cook 21 meals a week\. I fold mountains of laundry and the next week I do it all over again\. I sweep the floor that has accumulated an astonishing amount of dirt in only two hours\. In many ways, life is more mundane than it ever was before\. I had no ability to change the world as a starry\-eyed teen and neither do I have the ability now\. God isn’t asking that of me\. He only asks me to walk with Him and obey His voice\. Slowly I am learning that the spiritual and physical are inseparable—even Jesus taught the gospel of the kingdom while resting, sleeping, and eating\. Scrubbing a floor and slicing bread can be acts of worship to my Creator if I will deem them so\. It is He who designed that my spiritual walk and the propagation thereof happens as my hands touch the earthly\. This is how my spirit is refined\. It’s the only way I can express my faith as a living faith\. It’s the only way I can touch the hearts of my children and live out a practical gospel for them to imitate\. It’s how my faith proves itself to be real to the unbeliever, as they see me struggle through the same things they do, along with my resulting responses\. Slowly I am learning that serving God isn’t about determination or changing the world\. It’s about allowing God’s spirit to inhabit me, guide me, and speak to me\. I am learning that God is more interested in the person I am becoming instead of everything I want to do for Him\. Perhaps I am after all just a smoking flax instead of the one who will change the world\. I think Paul could relate to that feeling when he wrote, *But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence –1 Corinthians 1:27\-29\.* Elisabeth Elliot said, “Sometimes the light rises excruciatingly slowly\. The Kingdom of God is like leaven and seed, things which work silently, secretly, slowly, but there is in them an incalculable transforming power\. Even in the plain soil, even in the dull dough, lies the possibility of transformation\.”1 To have my heart set on accomplishments and success is a selfish way to live\. When that village and those people were taken from us in a whirl of government issues and misunderstandings, I felt like God couldn’t possibly use this for anyone’s good\. He still needed us there, right? The fact is, He didn’t need us there anymore\. We were not indispensable\. Perhaps God allowed it all in order to learn that His acceptance of me is not based on my accomplishments\. ![A sliced loaf of bread on a wooden board]() *For who hath despised the day of small things… –Zechariah 4:10\.* Who am I to judge if a certain work is small or not? Am I restless with my duties, believing God would be more pleased with my perception of ‘great’ duties, seemingly always out of reach? Am I forgetting that serving Christ is not about me and my sense of fulfillment, it is about God and the work He wants to do through me?\! Amy Carmichael said, “It is not the place where we are, or the work that we do or cannot do that matters, it is something else\. It is the fire within that burns and shines, whatever be our circumstances\.”2 The fire that burns and shines within is our secret\. That fire can burn while we scrub floors, cook endless meals, and home\-school our children\. It will touch the laundry lady, the house helper, the struggling girl at church and the neighbors\. Sometimes it will happen sub\-consciously, sometimes it happens if we decide to reach out instead of taking a nap or something else enjoyable, but always it takes forgetting ourselves, loving others, and noticing the small opportunities\. But beware… we cannot confuse our resignation to the smallness in our lives, with lethargy\. Too many Christians do not expect God to use them, so they settle into a lethargic spiritual position\. We should expect God to work in amazing ways\. God might use us to accomplish those things, but it often happens in ways we least think of or expect\. The widow of Zarephath agreed to give her last handful of flour and the last remaining drops of oil to a stranger\. She could have opposed the prophet and demanded he leave immediately, as after all, she was responsible for her son and that little bit of flour was all she had to give him\. But no, she chose to give it all\. God blessed her willing obedience by miraculously replenishing her flour and oil as long as she needed it\.3 God kept culling Gideon’s army until he eventually fought and won the battle with just a few hundred men\. Normally, Gideon was accustomed to armies of thousands\. and now God was asking him to fight a momentous battle with only a few hundred\. In the end, this human impossibility became an opportunity for God to show his power\.4 At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus chose only twelve men to disciple, instead of the crowds\. In the end, His small band of men deserted Him\. He was mocked and killed\. To everyone looking on, the remains of Jesus’ work seemed to have died with Him, yet the cosmic plan of redemption was being put into effect—those simple fishermen turned the world upside down with the gospel\.5 We see from these examples that God is not looking for the biggest, the strongest, or the best\. He doesn’t only use people with specialized skills or impressive gifts\. Our strength and resources are often like the few hundred soldiers in Gideon’s army—simply not enough for the need\. But when we give what we have with a willing heart, God multiplies our small efforts into a showcase of His grace—a showcase meant for Him, often not visible to others\. The simple act of setting a table is an act of faith, of giving, of service, no matter where we are\. God has chosen these weak things to be significant in His kingdom\. The secret to a successful life is Jesus in us, not our preconceived ideas of success\. With Him working in and through us, His power will burn in our homes and neighborhoods\. When He is the reason that we are living, we can trust Him with the outcome\. Listening to the voice of Jesus, we can make a difference—one person, one encounter, one small thing at a time\. 1. Elisabeth Elliot, The Savage My Kinsman \(revised edition Servant Publications 1981\) epilogue pg 147 2. Amy Carmichael, Edges of His Ways, pg 218 3. 1 Kings 17: 11\-16 4. Judges 7 5. Luke 6:13\-16, John 19 ## Magazine citation - [A sliced loaf of bread on a wooden board](): Adobestock\.com