The Big and Small

"Our citizenship in heaven defines our duties on earth."




Last Saturday I was hiking through a canyon with a friend. The walls of jagged rock on each side of us reflected the sound of a nearby flow of water. We stopped where the trail met the river. As we stood on the dry dirt trail, water launched into the air from the turbulent rapids and gently floated onto our faces. The mist was a refreshing contrast to the sun's rays. Standing there, we observed the power of the rapids in front of us. Individual drops of water were being tossed around from rock to rock, flying out of the water and landing with a splatter. I started to pick apart the noise I was hearing. On one end, there was the high pitched sound from the splatter of individual droplets and yet, that same sound, compounded millions of times over, sounded like a thunderous roar. Every drop was building towards a larger sound and yet every drop was distinct in its own. There was something so enormous yet so unpretentious about the sweeping force of water flowing in front of me.

Learning from the droplets of water, we must work together on our duty. Our duty on earth is to preach the gospel in all we do and strive to build God's kingdom. If we work together, we can be a thunderous roar instead of a small splatter. Together, we can contain a power never achievable alone.

Today, a fellow Christian (Bill) here at the park came up to me and gave me a book about the work Christ has set before us. Bill said he overheard me reading a fortune cookie. My cookie said, "You will receive an unexpected gift from an acquaintance." He didn't think much of it at the time, but after he read his own cookie, which said, "You will gain power in the project you are to carry out," he started to feel the Holy Spirit tugging on his heart to pull us Christians together.

Neither he nor I deny God's ability to use any means necessary to wake us up and set ourselves aside for something greater. If God has to use a couple superstitious fortune cookies to get us to pull together, then He is going to do it. Like the individual droplets of water, we have a specific duty. When we shed our motive to act solely on self-interest, we can see that God holds a duty for all Christians: a duty to work together for one purpose, His purpose.

I believe God is calling us to be thunderously loud. To preach the Gospel thunderously loud with our actions, thoughts, and, when necessary, with our words.