This month I’ve lived in a small city whose skyline includes the silhouette of an inactive volcano. The volcano sits in the distance, silently observing the slow-moving life of the city below. Its shadow falls over the cobblestone streets and the town square. And each night, the small tower in the town square lights up in a tint that I swear is burnt orange and consequently, I’m reminded of Austin, Texas almost every night.
Despite this beautiful place I’m living in, I confess that this month has been hard for me.
We’re working with a ministry that has set an all-time record for its inability to effectively communicate plans. Things are often lost in translation or just not communicated at all, and the resulting effect is that ministry has been pretty disorganized. I’ve found myself often frustrated and disappointed by my feeling of uselessness this month. We’ve done a lot of work that, by most Western missionaries, would be considered fruitless and futile. The ministry strategies seem outdated and ineffective. How does performing a goofy dance at an elementary school communicate the Gospel?
(performing a Jesus skit)
I’m aware that my preferred style of ministry may be completely unsuccessful here, so this isn’t an argument about whether I know how to share the Gospel better than the locals. Obviously I’m not trying to say that I know what I’m doing and they don’t. What I’m saying is that this month I have had to fight hard to believe that what I’m doing for the Lord is never useless (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Most days this mental battle keeps me occupied all afternoon. As we walk up hill after hill to some school where we’ll perform the same skit about good decisions, I try to convince myself that I am making a difference. I repeat Mother Teresa’s famous quote over and over: “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Great love, I repeat to myself. Do small things with great love.
Most days I have to settle with the hope that the Lord is up to something far beyond what I can see. I choose to believe that the Lord takes my efforts and multiplies them. As long as I am faithful with what He has given me, my labor will never be in vain.
There was one day though, where I felt especially useful – like my presence made a tangible difference in the world. We visited a nursing home and I brought my guitar to entertain the residents. Almost as soon as we arrived, I pulled it out and started strumming. For the next hour or so, I played the guitar and softly sang worship music. I sang over the elderly people, who’d gathered around me in their chairs to sit and listen. As I sang, worship blossomed organically out of me. I couldn’t control where one song ended and the other began because the words of adoration swirled together to compose one melody of endless praise.
Occasionally I looked up to observe the residents sitting in a circle around me. Some had drifted off to sleep, and others had a look of contentment and rest on their faces. They sat and stared at me, but not with puzzlement or fixation. They simply looked peaceful. And in that moment, the air was filled with the thickness of tranquility, and I felt like Jesus.
I don’t mean that in a blasphemous, heretical way. I mean that I felt like Jesus in the sense that if He were on Earth in the flesh and he just so happened to be in San Vicente, El Salvador, Jesus would be doing what I got to do. He would be sitting with the widows and the ostracized, and He’d be telling them about His Father, and He might even play the guitar while doing it. And then I thought that Jesus would also give all the old people a back rub, so after I finished playing guitar, I got up and rubbed their boney backs.
So despite the fact that I felt frustrated and useless for a lot of this month, there were also fleeting moments where I felt like I was getting to be Jesus to people. And from those moments, I learned a good lesson: We must be faithful to the opportunities God gives us, even if we had something else in mind. We must work enthusiastically at whatever task He’s called us to and trust that He will manage all the details. The seed-sower and the harvester have equally important jobs (1 Corinthians 3:7) and it’s important that we never stop doing good, because at just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessings (Galatians 6:9).
And so my friends, be faithful in the small things. Though your task may seem trivial, act with great love. Don’t let God’s opportunities be ignored because of your own emotions. Micro-level love really can change the world.
“To those who use well with what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.” Matthew 25:29 (NLT)
