Extraordinary Trust For Simply Things

For the most part, my father and I handle major problems or crises with a measurable patience and tact. My father once worked in a hospital where this served him very well. He had to manage a variety of health conditions and reactions of those walking into the emergency room. Once a friend broke his leg in our back yard. Calmly, he asked for two pieces of flat wood and some cloth which he made into a splint to keep the leg from moving to prevent more damage.

But when it comes to the smallest (yet still important) things in life I fall apart! When the system fails at work, traffic jams or feeling boxed in by every daily living - I have a melt down.

I can usually tell the little things bother me because I often repeat it to others around me. And in prayer it becomes a major complaint for God to help.

I better understand over the years a lack of certainty in God's promises for the smallest things matter between having a restful heart or anxious driven mind.

Jesus tells us, "Look at the birds in the sky! They don't plant or harvest. They don't even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren't you worth much more than birds?" (Matthew 6:26 CEV). Perhaps that's why I find myself staring out of my kitchen window when the birds rest on the trees. I'm a bit jealous that these creatures don't work like us. Seconds later the birds take flight and I say with the Psalmist, "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. (Psalms 55:6).

Faith is living (not some magical or ritualistic thing we create) because the substance of faith comes from the Lord. Our faith is not built to the measure of storms and trials we experience but the assurity that God's word never fails us. We enter every trial - small or big - with the measure of faith that will sustain us. On the other side, our faith increases because God is faithful to help us.

Small things do matter.

The ordinary things can be like a fleck of sand in the eyes causing irritation or it can be the mustard seed that grows our faith!