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!

Perfectly Imperfect

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. 

He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.

(Jeremiah 18:1-5)

I remember when my children were newborn babies. They were perfect - untarnished by the realities of life. They didn't have a care or concern in the world. And then they began to grow up. They came face to face with obstacles and decisions and hardship and loss.

They came face to face with the brokenness of this world. 

They came face to face with things which changed them. 

But, God understands this brokenness. As He is forming us, He realizes that we aren't going to stay untarnished... unmarred. As we are being formed by Him, we are also being marred by life. We get cracks and breaks. But He continues shaping and forming us. He uses the bad things in our lives, along with the good, to come up with something beautiful. 

God doesn't just say "Oh, this one isn't quite right" and toss the imperfect aside. He makes us perfect, not in spite of our imperfections, but because of our imperfections. 

We couldn't ask for a better potter.

Either God is Evil, or You're Being Lied to

At least once a week, I read something from someone claiming God sends us troubles and/or allows us to face troubles so that we learn to trust in him. That He does this to strengthen us.

I apologize for the language, and for anyone I offend with this, but I call Bullshit! This has got to be one of the most nonsensical bullshit lies I have ever seen taught about God. You're telling me - God allows a newborn baby to be thrown against a wall by her father, or drowned by his mother, to teach us to trust in God? You're telling me - God makes it so some psychologically ill person enters a school and kills a bunch of children, as a way of strengthening us? Please, Please, PLEASE! tell me on what planet that makes sense?

Either this theory is correct - which makes God insanely selfish and evil. Or, this theory is just a lie - which would go along with God being good. Of course, if this theory is a lie, why do bad things happen?

First, allow me to throw out some Bible verses which almost always accompany the articles teaching this lie...

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? (Romans 8:35)

To me, this is one of the most inspirational verses in the Bible. It's letting us know that regardless of what we do or what we go through, we still have the love of Christ and are still saved by His sacrifice. It doesn't say trouble or hardship is given to us so that we're brought closer to Christ. It says we cannot be separated from the love of Christ.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

This is another incredibly inspirational piece of scripture. Why? Because it provides us with a better way of looking at the obstacles in our path. This, to me, in no way tells us that God is letting things happen to us because He wants to test our faith.

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Again, inspirational. And to me, this can be looked at a few different ways. 1 - this was written by Jeremiah, regarding God's words to those exiled from Jerusalem. You really don't have to look at it as anything more than this. However, 2 - God does have plans for us. He doesn't harm us. He doesn't give us pain and trouble. These things are not part of His plan. He will give us hope and a future - hope for a future of eternity.

So why do bad things happen?

Because sin entered this realm? Because the world is plagued by evil? Because this earthly realm is Satan's playground? I truly do not know. But I do firmly believe that God has not ordained evil activities. When we're faced with stress and struggles and problems and troubles and evil and obstacles and pain and death... this is quite simply because this is how this life is. And God promises that some day it will all change. There will be no more hardship and despair of any magnitude.