Huge Small Things

Huge Small Things

When success comes your way, there is often an initial surprise in the accomplishment. Over time, the more successful you become, the easier it is to take the success for granted. When you begin to take success for granted, you will grow more and more discontent, and complacency can set in. When this happens, it can overcome you like a vicious animal on the prowl, and you find yourself in places doing things you would never have done before in a quest to find happiness and contentment once again.

This often happened to Israel. After they honored the Lord by keeping his covenant, he would bless them. In their blessings, they would forget the Lord, behave in such a way as to invoke the curses of the covenant (see Deuteronomy 28–32), and be disciplined by the Lord. Deuteronomy 32:15-16 gives us a description of this cycle:

But Israel soon became fat and unruly;

the people grew heavy, plump, and stuffed!

Then they abandoned the God who had made them;

they made light of the Rock of their salvation.

They stirred up his jealousy by worshiping foreign gods;

they provoked his fury with detestable deeds.

When you take success and prosperity for granted, it leads you down paths that aren’t pleasing to the Lord. One of the ways to guard against taking success for granted is to make a big deal out of small things. I challenge our church staff to never lose sight of the significance of the small victories, because those stories are powerful. Are they more commonplace than they once were? Yes. But they are still the victories we have been striving for from the beginning.

As you work, enjoy the huge accomplishment of the small things, as this makes the journey so much more meaningful. It also keeps you grounded in what really matters.

Then they abandoned the God who had made them; they made light of the Rock of their salvation.

Deuteronomy 32:15