Much in the Little
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Luke 16:10 (ESV) “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”
What It Is Speaking to Me
You ever seen any of the Rocky movies? There are 4 that I acknowledge in the franchise, though there are technically more. If you haven’t seen any of them, pick any sports movie you have ever seen because essentially they are all the same in this particular regard I am going to describe.
When you see the YouTube highlights of Rocky (insert your own sports movie here), it is the big fight at the end. It is the culmination of the movie; it all comes down to these 2-minute rounds in the ring with the whole world watching. It all comes down to that. The final big test.
But even in the created world put on film, that is not really the truth. The big picture is that what happens in that ring doesn’t just boil down to those few minutes with the crowd watching. It comes down to the training montages that happen earlier in the movie. The run up the Philly Art Museum steps, in the 4th installment the training in the Siberian winter in Russia in a tetanus-ridden barn. It is all the training sessions that had no crowd, no spectators.
Now the principle Jesus is describing has little to do with boxing and a lot to do with character. And character is not formed in the ring, it is tested in the ring. Character is formed every day, in the barn. On the street. When no one is watching. Charles Spurgeon said, “Who you are alone, you are.”
Movies have taught us to glorify the ring, when the chance for glory is found in the gym. Character isn’t determined by how I talk from the pulpit or in the church foyer, but by how I talk to the person ringing up my groceries, the overly talkative coworker in the next-door cubicle, whether I actually listen when someone’s telling me about their day, or if I cut corners when nobody’s checking my work.
The small decisions aren’t practice for the real thing. They are the real thing, just repeated all day, every day, until they add up to something. The much is in the little. I don’t want to despise the little or I will never see the much.
What Is It Saying to You?
Think back over just the last few hours, and consider your small decisions. A tone of voice. A comment you tossed off without thinking. Five minutes you could’ve given to someone and didn’t.
What do those choices say about who you are?
What Are We Going to Do About It?
Pick one small decision in the next hour. Not tomorrow’s meeting or this week’s project, something small and close: how you answer a text, how you treat the person who’s annoying you right now, how you spend a spare five minutes. Before you do it, just ask: is this good?
