I am frequently invited to speak at church gatherings, women’s group meetings, and conventions, and even to travel to faraway places as a featured Bible teacher. Years ago, when looking at a pile of invitations, I remember struggling with my motivation to take only the “big” meetings. The important events! After all, when our children were still at home, I limited myself to one overnight event a month and one out-of-state engagement. The rest I filled in with home ministry in my church and area. But I was getting so many invitations that it was tempting to go for only the “big” opportunities.
Praying about it one day, I asked God for something I could do to check this tendency. At once I knew what to do. Whenever I took a “big” opportunity, I would accept a small one. If I spoke to thousands one weekend, I would travel to the middle of a small state to meet with a group of women in a farmhouse the next. And I discovered many things about God, myself, and other people this way.
One of my biggest discoveries was that sometimes the “small” meeting was the “big” meeting. Incredible things were wrought in the lives of a couple of people in a group in the middle of nowhere, which then resulted in reaching thousands. And I got to invest in a circle of people who took me into their hearts at a deep level to become my prayer partners and friends for the journey and who invested in our ministry.
It happened in a place called Boondocks. Yes, it did – there really is such a place. The meeting was in a farmhouse in a cornfield, and a few women met to hear me teach the Bible for a day. At the end of the day, one of the women asked me about our radio program. “What can we do to get it on the radio in our area?” she asked. I told her that we buy radio time, which is terribly expensive, and that we would have to find a station that broadcasts into the area. I was pretty sure there wasn’t one near them.
She didn’t say anything else, but after I had gone home, she made some calls and found a Christian radio station. She asked how much it would cost to broadcast a half hour of our radio program. The station manager told her. It wasn’t cheap. A few weeks later, we received a check to cover the cost for a trial run. We did it. She has supported us ever since. That whole area of the country has been able to listen to Bible study on the radio every day as a result of this “small” opportunity.
These kinds of things seldom happen in a crowd. In the big events. So something I did to keep my pride in check ended up being a blessing to me, giving me “heart partners” in ministry, and bringing the gospel to an area bereft of Christian teaching – thereby blessing others.
We need to die to the nonsense of controlling our own lives and ministry, in fact, our own anything – our own schedules, time, money, status, and the trappings of self-importance. Jesus left everything behind Him. All His things. Do we have our “things” in perspective? Cultivating a spirit of humility will help us keep ourselves the “right size” in our thinking.
Paul said that we shouldn’t allow a spirit of rivalry to cause divisions among us. Rivalry about ministry. Even rivalry about material things. Do we have these things in perspective? What kind of car do we drive? How do we spend our money? Where do we go for our leisure time? Do we easily say no to legitimate pursuits in order to serve people? Are we dead to the lure of things and alive to the things of Jesus?
Jesus died on the cross. He died to a career – He was only about thirty-three years old when He died. He died to fame and fortune. He insisted that those He healed not tell anyone (see Matt. 8:4, for example). He died to a career as a super-rabbi, spending His days on earth debating in the schools of Hillel and Shammai – prominent religious teachers of the day. He died to companionship among the elite and chose to spend His time with tax collectors and sinners. So Jesus modeled humility for us.
One of the things that will really keep us humble is to spend time with the disenfranchised, the poor, the oppressed, the prisoners, and the outcast. Such experiences as serving with my friend in a maximum security prison, visiting a relief center at a garbage dump in the Philippines, helping displaced people find a toilet or some water to wash themselves, and talking to beggars in Peru, have changed my life and humbled me beyond measure. As I learn to wash the feet of suffering people, I cry. How rich and spoiled I am. How soft. How unworthy to serve these people – to give a cup of cold water to the persecuted or a blanket to the naked. Why should I have the privilege to be fed and warm, well and strong? Why do I live in a country with police protection, a country that is comparatively safe? Why is my stomach full? Why do I have a bed to sleep in and so many clothes in my closet? I am humbled by my wealth. I am humbled by the poverty of many in this country and around the world.
We so often rate and value events, ministry, and even people according to their importance in the eyes of the world. Instead, we need to think about their importance in the eyes of God. In a society that is market driven and filled with “people worshipers,” the Church needs to be careful that it doesn’t allow the world’s values to drive ministry. It might just be that sometimes the small thing is the big thing!
