Think Small (but Dream Big)

Think Small (but Dream Big)

So many folks have big dreams. Big hopes. Big ideas. But they’re convinced they can’t do what God’s put in their hearts to do because “other people” won’t cooperate. So the dreamers keep dreaming, but after a while the very dream that used to seem like a sweet and tantalizing savor becomes a hard, bitter lump of resentment and regret. And eventually, those dreams wither.

I have two words for dreamers: think small.

I began writing a weekly devotional fifteen years ago, with fewer than twenty-five people on the receiving end. I did it because I’m a writer, and writers write. The numbers didn’t matter then, and they don’t now. Every devotional, every article, every book is read by one person—one very real person—at a time.

I started teaching over thirty years ago . . . in my own living room. I invited half a dozen friends over to study the Bible together, offered to lead, and never looked back. Those friends invited friends, and though there were never more than a dozen or so of us gathered at any given time, we kept it up for seven years of Monday nights. Those were some of the sweetest teaching experiences of my life.

Today I travel long distances to speak to groups far too large for my living room, being paid for what I still consider a privilege. But there’s no place I’d rather teach than in my own church on any Sunday morning of the year. On a “big” Sunday there might be thirty of us in class—but don’t be fooled. Important things happen when we gather in Jesus’ name, no matter how many are there.

If you belong to God, then he has gifted you, put dreams in your heart, and equipped you to be his servant in the place he’s set you down. You’re not where you are by accident. Don’t be fooled by the numbers game! We don’t have to be the biggest, or the best known, or the most followed. We simply have to be faithful where we are. Defy the world today: dream big and think small.

Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.

Ephesians 2:9