What Looks Like a Big Story Now Felt Like a Small Story Then

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Acts 25:1–5

Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. They requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. Festus answered, “Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there.”

CONSIDER THIS

What feels like a big story now felt like a small story at the time.

We must remind ourselves continually of our point of view as we read Scripture. It is so easy to read the present back into the past. We approach the text more than two thousand years later. The church is ubiquitous. We find ourselves on the far side of the long fade of Christendom, that period of history where it became hard to distinguish the church from the state. In the North American context, it is still more common to identify as a Christian than not. Our politicians appeal to their conservative values in seeking to be reelected. There may be more Bibles than people in this country alone.

What I’m getting at is our tendency to read the Bible with the point of view that Paul (or Jesus for that matter) was somehow at the center of the culture and society of their day. If we aren’t self-critical about our own place and point of view, we all too readily think everyone in the first century (save the detractors) accorded Paul the rock star status we tend to give him today in retrospect.

Sure, Paul mattered a lot to the young church, but the church was barely a minority report in the first forty years of its existence. Sure, they were growing and making a few highlight reels here and there, but the overwhelming majority of the people in the world would still be in the dark.

This thing going on with Paul and the Jews and the Roman court system would have hardly been a blip on the radar screen of anyone. We must discard any assumption we have that this story was somehow newsworthy. Looking back from the twenty-first century, the whole thing unfolds before us as a stunning God-sized story of cosmic proportions. At the time, who even knew it was happening, and of those who knew, who really cared?

Looking back, the only reason we even know the names of Felix and Festus and half a dozen other bit players of history is Paul—that’s why we know them. History has its way, doesn’t it? That’s how history happens. It often takes the perspective of years to see what really mattered and what didn’t. At the time it’s impossible to know.

Remember that when you think about what you are doing today with your life. In the present, it can seem oh so small and insignificant. I think that’s what Jesus was trying to get across when he talked to us about the mustard seed becoming the largest tree in the garden. Be encouraged, Christian! Don’t give up! Give yourself to what may seem small today. It’s worth it. It matters. You matter. Press on. Invest your resources in what many may consider a kingdom of God longshot. Every big story was once a very small story. It’s why I spend so much time talking about seeds. The whole story is in the single seed. 

C. T. Studd put it well in the refrain from his famous poem, “Only one life, twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.”

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, I am your witness. I long to be like you. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness.
I receive your love and release my selfishness.

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE JOURNAL PROMPTS

Have you ever considered that you might possibly make history (directly or indirectly) by simply being obedient in the little things? Consider it. And the truth is, you are making kingdom-of-God history with every act of small obedience—whether it makes the history books or not. It will matter enormously to those around you. 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing “Blessed Assurance” (hymn 570) from our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise. Get your copy here. 

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt

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