No Problem is Too Small (Big isn't always better)

You make too much money...
We're looking to make a difference...
We want to do something bigger...

How many of you have experienced (or known someone to experience) a situation like those listed below?

Your spouse lost his/her job, and it's difficult to make ends meet on one income. You try to get help (rental assistance, monetary assistance, medical insurance assistance), but are told "sorry, you make too much."

Or, you've been receiving assistance, and finally get a job to get back on your feet. And then are immediately informed your assistance is now cut off because "sorry, you make too much."

These programs are meant to help those in need - but the downfall is that they stop once you hit a certain limit, even if that limit is not enough for a family to successfully survive on.

This teaches that if your problem isn't big, you won't be helped.

We want to do BIG things!

We often see this same thinking when it comes to helping others in need in our day to day lives. We send our donations oversees because these people have bigger problems than the homeless guy down the street. We give our money to large charities rather than buying a meal for the poverty stricken family next door. We donate our time to large soup kitchens, shelters, and the like instead of offering the single mother across the road some help with household chores or with caring for the children.

We want to do big things. We want to know we've made a difference. Helping just one person? That's easy. Someone else can do it. We want the big things! We want to help those "more" in need. We want to help with the "bigger" issues. We don't want to go visit the person who's just ill in the hospital - we want to visit the one who will pass away soon. That will make a bigger impact on a family, and on society.

Jesus washed feet

Jesus did some miraculous things in His time on Earth. He raised people from the dead, cured the sick, fed multitudes... and, of course, died and was resurrected.

But Jesus did not reserve Himself for the big things. He held small children. He comforted the sick. He washed the feet of His disciples.

Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.

After Jesus did the miraculous - fed five thousand people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish - He told His disciples to “Gather up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost.”(John 6:12).  

Why should a man, capable of feeding thousands with so little, be so considered with the crumbs? Maybe because it is not just the big things in life that are important. Maybe it was to show us that we need to draw our attention away from the big things, and take care of the smaller things. 

No problem is too great for God

We hear and read that statement a lot - "No problem is too great for God." It's a comfort to hear such a truth. But, I think we also need to remember that there is no problem too SMALL for God. 

And, there shouldn't be for us either. 

God bless!