Monthly Archives: August 2011

Little by Little

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Skylar and Micah love the beach, as most children do. We’ve tried to spend lots of time there where everyone is busy, happy and gradually gets worn out toward a good night’s sleep.

The other day after a wild thunderstorm, our normally south-veering creek had swelled with enough rainwater to overflow its banks and had cut a new route, emptying into Lake Michigan toward the north. The kids loved playing in the gently moving, shallow water, and I saw an interesting phenomenon.

As the creek steadily ran across a new area of the beach, it gradually carved a deep course, cutting through 3 feet of sand. Never mind its gentle flow. Slow and relentless had done the job. Little by little individual grains of sand coaxed into the water had washed out into the lake. When enough sand had been moved, the sides collapsed in slow motion, widening the creek and its influence on the beach.

While watching 18 month old Micah with one eye and the creek bank with the other, I felt God nudging me toward a lesson:

small effort + steadfastness = impressive results

If I was told to move one grain of sand, it’d be easy, but digging a yard-deep trench would take more muscle than I could give.

The lesson is one most of us need to relearn throughout life. Applied to dieting, for example, it might mean eliminating one treat per day and losing pounds slowly but continually until we finally arrived at an ideal weight. Instead we go-for-broke, eating next-to-nothing or only broccoli because slow-and-steady takes too long. And of course radical diets never work.

Or let’s say we have trouble saving money. Setting aside 1 dollar each day would find us with $365 at the end of the first year. But we’d rather slash and stash a big amount overnight, even though we know we’ll have to use it by the end of the month.

Another example might be prayer. Talking to God for just 1 minute a day would mean by the end of the year we would have prayed over 6 hours, an investment of incalculable value to those for whom we’d prayed.

Q: What prevents us from rolling away one grain of sand at a time?

A: Thinking big and thinking speed.

None of us wants to spend time doing something small and unimportant. Moving 1 grain, losing 1 pound, saving 1 dollar or praying 1 minute seem like investments too small to be of any value. No one would even notice.

But that’s inaccurate. God would.

And more than just noticing, he’d be pleased with our:

  1. quiet contentment in small beginnings,
  2. demonstration of long-term commitment,
  3. perseverance.

He’d also reward us with eventual impressive results. Moving that 1st grain of sand followed by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th would be a painless way to win God’s approval while accomplishing something significant.

Who knew a wayward creek could teach us how to grow in godliness.

“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” (1 Timothy 6:6)

Endless Flow

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Little children love to be outside. Even a fussy newborn often quiets under an open sky or in a gentle breeze. These days we’ve been taking lots of walks with my young grandchildren, each outing more exciting than a well planned field trip. Preschoolers notice everything from tiny bugs to bits of gravel and beg to stop and watch, touch, discuss.

Today as Skylar, Micah, their parents and I ambled home from the playground, both children preferred walking to riding in the stroller, which slowed our pace considerably but invited us to look at the world from their point of view. Stopping in front of a small child-high fountain became a photo op as they studied the wonder of a never-ending water flow.

The little concrete girl was filling a tub with water from her jug, and we talked about why she might be doing that (maybe to bathe her baby). But it was puzzling that she couldn’t complete her task, because the water just kept coming. But as children so easily do, they accepted that this was the way it was for her, and on we went.

Our local Christian bookstore displays an attention-grabbing item, too: a 16 ounce pop bottle filled with dirty water. Dark particles float in it and sediment rests at the bottom. A sign explains this is the best water many people have. Among other things, they strain it for drinking, an appalling thought. No wonder disease runs rampant and people die young.

One of the ongoing humanitarian efforts of missionaries and others is to bring clean, drinkable water to people who’ve never had it. I think back to biblical days and wonder if the water then was any better than what’s in the plastic pop bottle at the bookstore. Quality water was like gold in biblical times, since that area of the world was (and is) mostly parched desert. Just reading through scriptural stories makes me want to head for the kitchen for a cool drink.

The Bible often uses water in powerful object lessons. One example is Jesus’ conversation with a woman at a community well where he referred to himself as the living water. Another was an Old Testament reference to God being the fountain of life. We also learn we’ll be drinking miraculous water in heaven one day.

The one thing these water images have in common is that they’ll never run dry. When earth’s water-resources have disappeared completely, streams of living water will be flowing still, into us, which means we’ll never go thirsty, not literally and not spiritually. Like the little concrete fountain Skylar and Micah appreciated this afternoon, the life-giving water available through divinity will keep running indefinitely.

The only difference between the fountain-girl pouring into a wash tub and God pouring into us is that her supply comes through a hose connected to a city water tank. And his? His comes from… well… him!

“You [O Lord] give [the children of men] to drink of the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life.” (Psalm 36:8,9)

Hot ‘n Heavy

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Three year old Skylar loves to help me walk Jack the dog, holding his leash as we amble the quiet lanes of our subdivision. I’ve schooled her in what to do if Jack sees a squirrel and bolts. “What then, Skylar?”

“Drop it!” she says, demonstrating for me as Jack’s retractable leash flies out of her hand and toward his neck.

Yesterday as we walked along on a stifling afternoon, she asked why Jack’s tongue was hanging out of his mouth.

“He’s hot,” I said. “Dogs do that and pant to feel cooler.”

“Well,” she said, pausing and tipping her head to one side, “then why doesn’t he just take off his black furry coat?”

“He doesn’t know how,” I said.

“Then I’ll show him,” she said. “He has to do the zipper.”

“Can you do it for him?” I said.

“Sure, Grandma Midgee.”

Skylar hunted for several minutes, feeling Jack’s back, chest, tummy, even his legs, while our ever-patient dog stood still and panted.

“I can’t find it,” she finally said. “Can you do it?”

And so I hunted, too, coming up empty. “You know, I don’t think he has a zipper, Skylar.”

“But then how is he going to get his coat off?” she said.

“I guess he can’t.”

“Aww,” she said, sympathizing with his plight. “Poor Jackie.”

Sometimes I think God sees us that same way. We struggle along bearing heavy burdens with our proverbial tongues hanging out, wondering why life is so hard. Is there a zipper, a way to shed the weight? Yes, but we have to take advantage of it.

God’s “zippers” are linked to his promises. If we believe them, we can shed our burdens as easily as throwing off a heavy fur coat on a hot day.

  • For example, if we believe the promise that he’ll work everything out for good, we’ll begin looking for that good, automatically focusing away from the bad.
  • Because he says he’ll always be with us, we’ll begin talking to him more, pouring out our requests and being surprised by his answers.
  • When he promises peace in the midst of chaos, we’ll handle every crisis with calm composure rather than all-out panic.
  • As we believe his promise to forgive us, we’ll be able to move away from damage we’ve caused and start fresh.

These are just a few, but Scripture is jam-packed with promises. It’s God’s love letter to us, filled with good offers to help us live a burden-free life, but it’s our choice. We can cloak ourselves with heavy loads we’re not meant to bear, or we can search for a zipper and throw off what threatens to smother us in favor of a lighter life.

None of us have to end up like poor Jack, weighed down by hot, heavy burdens without a zipper.

“He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature.” (2 Peter 1:4)