I’m not an adventurous person, but the twists and turns of my life suggest that, for me at least, God implements such things as ‘compulsory adventures’. The problem is that being between adventures leaves me tormented by restlessness. I’m not exaggerating for effect (who me?). ‘Tormented’ is a carefully chosen word. I suspect this is a condition I’ll have to deal with for the rest of my days. It’s difficult.
My mistake is to think that life is about these big, momentous experiences, and eavesdropping on our culture only reinforces this misunderstanding. As a rule, we’re encouraged to sleepwalk our way through the week, looking forward to the weekend, or a holiday, or the Next Big Thing. It’s true that life can feel like long periods of boredom punctuated by brief periods of excitement, but only being enthusiastic about adventure is no way to live.
Actually, those long periods of boredom are crucially important. It’s the small things that we fill our lives with that make the difference, and as Richard Wurmbrand said, “Saints are those who do small things well.” The fruit of our lives comes from what we plant in the uneventful, not what we do on our compulsory adventures. We think that significant Christian leaders, the sort of people whose stories are told long after they are gone, are significant purely because they make the most of big opportunities. No. They’re men and women who make the most of the small things, and when the big things come their way they’re already so used to putting God front and centre that they take advantage of adventures out of habit. If you keep God to one side, waiting for something big to come along, then you’ll find that He won’t fit into your life because you’ve already filled it with junk.
Today’s blog post is just for me. I need to remind myself of what is true, especially during these grumpy weeks. Sitting down, staring in front of a blank screen and painfully squeezing words onto a page is good medicine. It’s one of the small things that I need to fill my life with in order to qualify for the next compulsory adventure.
I wrote down a quote from a wise man a couple of years ago that said…
“I doubt there is any kind of ranking system in the new creation. However if there is, I suspect that it isn’t the great Christian leaders who ranks highest, but instead a little old lady somewhere, that no body really heard about, who was quietly faithful, loving and serving the neighbours around her”
Thanks James. A timely reminder
Sounds like a very wise fella.
Perhaps it’s the ‘small things’ that really matter after all. As Wordsworth said, “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.” Heaven weighs the worth of things by different ‘scales’ to ours – the widow’s mite for example !
Greetings to you and your blog. it’s good to speak to you again.
Thanks Richard. Hope things are going well for you and your internet musings!