Little Things

One of the adages we are all taught at some point in our lives is "don't sweat the small stuff."

And yet, it is often the small stuff that adds up to become the big stuff. Even worse, what they really mean is don't "sweat" the big stuff. Purporting that we should not talk about the big stuff. We should not deal with it. We should not handle it. We should just push it down to where the sun don't shine and pretend it doesn't exist.

Enter the book of Revelation. Where everything is the big stuff. And we cannot ignore it.

We have no choice but to deal with it in full technicolor and surround sound. Because otherwise, we will not survive.

Have you ever lived through a time like that in your own life? In your own community? In our world?

Many could argue that Covid was just such a time. And like all great and enormous challenges, we have intentionally wiped those years from our communal memory bank.

I remember the summer before my husband died. It was actually the summer of 2020. He ended up developing sepsis from a cellulitis infection in his "good leg." The closest major hospital to us was in Pittsburgh, two hours away. Which meant that I was splitting my time between my husband, who spent three or four weeks in the hospital, and my twin three-year-old sons, who luckily had their big sister living with us at that point.

And yet, in the midst of those strange and shadow-filled days, there were wondrous moments of life that wefound. When we would bring the boys in for the weekend so they could see their daddy in the gardens of the hospital for a few minutes and then we would then find every outdoor activity for children in the city. The hours of playing beloved board games and filling in grown up coloring books together. Making connections and sharing stories with the staff on the floor where we spent so many weeks.

Because the honest truth is that life doesn't wait for the challenge to abate. For hardship to end. For the end of the world to come.

We must find moments of respite and revel in joy even now. We must live into hope and seek justice every way that we are able because God's kingdom is already present in our midst, even if not yet fulfilled. All those little things become the big things that change the world.