Sometimes it seems like its the details of life that will be our undoing – the cell phone that refuses to work, the piece of paper that can’t be found, or the dog that can’t seem to learn his lesson. We know that these things won’t matter in 100 years, and yet they can be the very things that frustrate us, and cause us angst. We handle the crisis well because we know that there are people counting on us to do so – but the small stuff, that can cause us to lose our cool.
Yet we know, as the title of a famous book implores us, that we shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. We shouldn’t get wrapped up in the minutia of life because they are just a part of living in a fallen world. As Christians, we know that these aren’t things that will matter in eternity (although our response might) so we shouldn’t let them consume our thoughts. We know all this, yet still it’s hard.
However, I’ve realized that there’s another reason that we don’t have to be concerned with the small stuff – we serve a God who is. After all, He is the one that is concerned with the number of hairs on our heads, and whether a sparrow falls. He cares to make sure that even the lilies are adorned in splendor. He’s taking care even of the things that we disregard – how much more so will He take care of things that capture our attention?
Sometimes it’s seems like its easier to trust God for the big things. “That’s His domain”, we fool ourselves into thinking, and we somehow think that the details are ours. However, experience quickly teaches us that we are wrong. We can’t even keep a hair from falling out of our heads, how will handle all the other details that invade our lives? The simple answer is that we can’t. But we can follow God, and trust that just like with the big things, He will take care of the details.
It’s hard to not focus on the minutia of life. It’s hard not to get wrapped up in the details. But we can have confidence that these don’t need to be the centrality of our concern because we serve a God who has the small stuff, as well as the big picture, under His watchful care.
What do you think? Why do we focus on the small stuff? How have you learned to trust these things to the Master’s care?
