A Small Thing That May Get You Called Out In Church

I knew I was in trouble when I saw my pastor look directly at me in the middle of his sermon.  

Trust me when I tell you your heart starts pumping pretty fast when in a church of 8000 members, the attention is on you.  But it wasn’t out of embarrassment or fear of getting exposed for something I did wrong, it was because I knew I was about ready to ball my eyes out.

You see my pastor was preaching out of John 6 where Jesus used the “five SMALL barley loaves and two SMALL fish” that a boy had, to feed over 5000 people. He shared that the small things we give to Jesus and we do in His honor to serve others, God will multiply and do great things from it.

And so when my pastor looked at me and told the congregation who he really loved and appreciated..and that it was me…my eyes started welling up tears. He mentioned the “small thing” I had done to impact his son Josh back when he was a teenager, and how even today it has impacted his son. 

You see Josh was a PK. He absolutely loved..and dare I say almost worshipped the band Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder.  We were introduced when his father first came to our church as the pastor back in 1993.  Josh was incredibly smart and generally cordial to everyone but you could tell he had some reservations about who he let into his world.  

I intentionally started trying to connect with him. We would go to the gym regularly in the mornings, grab lunch and even one time we drove to St. Louis for a concert of another favorite band of his.  We had many great conversations where we talked about his life and spiritual things.  He thought deeply about all these things and it required great discernment, love and patience to take care of what God was doing in his heart.  

As he went off to college we only saw each other every once in awhile.  I do remember a time when he was back working at the church part time on the custodial staff. He shared with me how much it meant to him and that out of all the people he knew, I showed him the love of Jesus like he had never experienced.  

And recently, 26 years later, as a husband and father himself, he reached out to me to tell me how he realizes even more the impact our time together had back then on his life.  What a treasured gift that was to have Josh share those words with me!

I share this not to call attention to myself, but rather to highlight what God taught me again that day…and when his father called me out in church as well.  It is this…

that small things matter.

Small things. That is, seemingly little, perhaps mundane or obscure things we may do, can have lasting impact well beyond their initial act.  

Getting called out and encouraged like this in such a public setting, I knew God wanted me and others to always remember that  “the small things” we do in love that honor Him, He will multiply. 

So what “small thing” do you feel God calling you to do.  Whatever it is….do it.  Do it and know He will multiply it many times over!

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ACTION IDEAS:

• Read John‬ ‭6:1-13‬. Put yourself in the interaction. How would you feel if you were the boy or others…before and after…after the miracle?
• Reflect if there was time you did something small for someone else.  What kind of evidence of God’s multiplication happened because of your small act.  Give thanks to God for that!
• What small thing do you sense God might want you to do for Him and others this week?

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