KevinChilds.com

Here’s an incredibly curious thing about faith: We tend to act – if we’re honest about it – as if Jesus can handle any big thing, but not necessarily the little things. We believe Jesus can sustain us through a bout with cancer.  We believe Jesus will carry us through the loss of a career. He’ll empower us to overcome danger, grief, loss, and death itself. If terrorists capture us and put a sword to our throats, we shall fear no evil, for thy rod and staff comfort us.

But we freak out about the small stuff.

Let somebody utter a slight criticism, and it keeps us up nights. Insignificant puny little arguments at home threaten our very manhood or womanhood. If it rains one day during our beach vacation, God has ceased to be a just and holy God. One minor moral failure by your (formerly thought perfect) child, and God has abandoned His creation.  Have you ever examined the things church people argue and whine most passionately about? It isn’t doctrine, or how to keep the greatest number of people out of Hell, or lapses in integrity by leaders. It’s – in the grand scheme of things – itsy bitsy teeny tiny micro-drama.

Is Jesus not big enough to handle the small things?

Should the faith and substance of His people not be big enough to overcome little things?

I propose that those who claim the name of Jesus agree to a few things:

• We will exercise enough Christian discernment to distinguish between big deals and small deals.
• We will not doubt God or damn each other over small things.
• We will learn to say, “Well if this is my biggest problem, thank the Lord.”
• We will recognize that many things that stress us are merely the latest in a string of small things.
• We will believe that “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) applies not only to major crises … but also to little things that tick us off or cause us pain.

The same Jesus who cast out demons, overcame the grave, and stomped a permanent hole in the devil … THAT SAME JESUS lives in you, Christian.

THAT is a big deal.