“Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others.  God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.”  Hebrews 13:16 (The Message)

What can you possibly share with God?  After all, he literally does have everything.

It’s just a silly story, of course, but what comes to mind is the children’s Christmas book The Littlest Angel.  Maybe you heard this story as a child, or maybe you’ve read it to your own kids.  As its title implies, it’s a story about the youngest angel in heaven who was “exactly four years, six months, five days, seven hours and forty-two minutes of age” when he showed up at the pearly gates.  From his first day forward—though heaven was majestic and full of beauty—this little guy just didn’t fit in very well.  And as time went by, he was more and more miserable.

Eventually, a kind, elder angel realized that this little angel’s sadness was really homesickness—for his life as a little boy back on earth.  Everything changed for the better once the little angel was allowed to retrieve a small, rough, unsightly little box from under his bed “back home.”  The box contained the kinds of treasures little boys often collect: a butterfly with golden wings, a sky-blue egg from a bird’s nest, two white stones from a muddy river bank, and a tooth-marked leather strap once worn as a collar by his pet dog.  But to the littlest angel, these homely little objects were a secret source of delight.  When the time came for Jesus to be born on earth, all the angels of heaven brought gifts and placed them before the throne of God.  Our little angel buddy laid down his precious box, even though he worried what God would think of his humble offering.

Dave [Ping] says,

“For some reason, though I’m over 50 years old and not a particularly emotional guy, I can’t ever get through this story without getting choked up.  I actually have to hold back tears every time I read the part where God says, ‘Of all the gifts of all the angels, I find that this small box pleases me most.’  In fact it was so special that the story says God transformed that lowly box into the Star of Bethlehem—a beacon to all who would bring their gifts to honor Jesus.

“When I think about it, I guess there is something deep inside me—and perhaps deep inside everybody—that wants God to treasure the humble things that we love most.  Though you and I may think we’re nothing special and don’t have much to give, God disagrees.  For reasons the angels don’t even fully understand, he values us and our humble little offerings of time, talents, and money far beyond mountains or oceans of gold and anything else we might think of.”

It’s a nice story—but it’s still just a story.  The author made it all up complete with “nursery-appropriate” pictures of angels and how things work up in heaven.  And yet this fictional story holds biblical truths many of us grown-ups have forgotten all about.

A Little Mustard Seed and a Bit of Yeast

Jesus used two illustrations, one right after the other.  First, he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field.  It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”  Then Jesus continued, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread.  Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough” (Matthew 13:31-33).

Both of these similes are meant to illustrate how little things—things we’re tempted to discount and ignore—can make a bigger difference than we first imagined.  A single mustard seed is nothing to look at.  It’s smaller than a grain of sand, but if you plant it in your field, it can grow to over 10 feet in height.

Maybe you’ve picked up on it already, but one of Steve’s [Sjogren] great heroes is Mother Teresa.  As we mentioned earlier, she was a little woman, standing at just 4 feet-11 inches tall.  But she was only “little” on the outside—the same way a mustard seed is little.  On the inside—where her relationship with God was growing—were all the gigantic makings of a world-changer.  Nobody understood when, relatively late in her life and with very little support from her religious order, she set out for Calcutta.  But she didn’t care what anyone else thought; she believed she was called to work with poor Indian people who were dying in the streets.

When she got to Calcutta, leaders of the religious charities and government agencies tried to discourage her.  They said they were already doing all that could be done for the city’s poor.  Undaunted, this “little” woman began physically carrying dying beggars off the street and into a tiny hospice.  She did everything she could think of to tend the beggars’ wounds and show them the love of Jesus during the last few days, hours, and minutes of their earthly lives.  The story goes that near the end of Mother Teresa’s life, a journalist asked her how many of these poor souls she’d carried off the streets and she guessed somewhere between 30,000 and 35,000.  Shocked, he asked, “How did you ever help so many?”  The answer she gave was a little unexpected.  “If I hadn’t carried the first one,” she said, “I couldn’t have carried the 30,000^th.”

In other words, before that little mustard seed can grow to tower over the rest of the garden plants, it must be planted.  If it sits in its safe little packet with all the other seeds, no shoots will ever spring up to seek the sunlight, and no roots will ever go down into the soil to draw nourishment or support the growing plant.  It will just grow stale on the shelf.  The same is true for yeast—the tiny living fungus that ferments the sugar in bread dough and causes it to rise.  A minute bit of yeast can infect a huge vat of dough in the most positive way possible, enriching it and increasing it in size 50 percent, 100 percent, or even 1000 percent.  But in order to do its job, that yeast must be put into the dough.  For Mother Teresa to become the world-changer God created her to be, she had to first leave her safe home and make the journey to Calcutta.  She had to pick up that first beggar and tend to his wounds.

As anyone who has ever spent time in a bakery or a kitchen knows, yeast not only causes bread to rise, it infects the very atmosphere around it with its wholesome aroma.  This echoes the Scripture that says when we follow Jesus, we bring “the aroma of Christ” to those around us (2 Corinthians 2:15, NIV).  This aroma doesn’t come from grand gestures or even our tremendous talent.  It comes from lots of tiny, no-big-deal atoms of goodness we’ve shared with God and allowed him to use for his purposes.

Of the many profound things Mother Teresa said during her lifetime, one quote in particular captures this thought.  She said, “Not everyone can do great things, but everyone can do small things with great love.”  Steve [Sjogren] has transformed those words into a battle cry for ordinary people who want their lives to make an extraordinary difference in the world.  His version goes like this: “Small things done with great love will change the world!”

What we’ve been taught all our lives (especially us Americans) is that big celebrities with big bank accounts are the ones who change the world—but that’s just not true!  Anyone—anyone—who is motivated by God’s love can change the world.  Anyone—anyone—who is willing to leave the safety of everyday routine for the sake of saving lives (physical and eternal), can change the world.

That’s the mustard-seed mindset:  Letting God plant you in the world so you can become a towering tree—one that represents faith, love, and the hope of God.  That’s the yeast way of life—acknowledging that those little, insignificant-seeming talents and opportunities God has placed in your hands can give rise to hope in the hearts of those around you.  Just because your contributions might seem small, don’t let that stop you from sharing them with God.

If this sounds a little cosmic, maybe the following story will bring it down to earth for you.

Start Small

A few years ago, Steve was invited to Kenya to speak in Eldoret, an area a couple hours north of Nairobi.  About 1,000 people showed up for a two-day conference centered on living the generous, “outward-focused” life modeled by Jesus and the early church.  After hearing hours or Bible teachings and practical examples of how Steve’s church had practiced mustard-seed-sized actions in his community, the church’s elders gathered.  Steve describes what happened next:

They huddled for about 30 minutes, and then came and told me, “We have decided that this is a biblical idea and it is something the Holy Spirit is calling us to take part in from now on.  We will begin tomorrow with all of our people.  What do you suggest we do that wouldn’t cost a lot?”

The first idea that popped into my head was cleaning up the trash that was piled up everywhere in the streets of Eldoret.  So that’s what I suggested to the elders, and that’s what they announced to their people.  “Tomorrow we will all come at 8:30 with buckets from home and them we will all go out and clean up our city to show Christ’s love.  See you all in the morning!”

Based on my experiences with the American churches I’d worked with, I expected maybe a couple of dozen people to show up.  But the next morning at 8:30, there were over 1,000 people gathered and ready with buckets in hand!  There they were, from 4-year-old children to 90-year-old senior citizens, linking arms and sweeping through the streets of the city.  Every speck of litter, every shard of broken glass, every piece of paper, and every cigarette butt on the streets disappeared into their buckets!

You could literally see where the kingdom of God had been and where it had yet to go just by looking at the ground.  Where it was clean, Christ’s followers had been there.  Where it was covered with garbage, they hadn’t gotten there yet.

I don’t know how it started, but soon our crowd of Christian street cleaners began singing beautiful, Swahili worship songs.  To me, it was nothing short of heavenly.  And I wasn’t the only one who saw it.  Many passers-by stopped in their tracks to watch and listen.  Some even began to weep at what they saw.  A photojournalist from the Kenya Times who was passing by snapped many pictures of “the cleansing of Eldoret.”

Like so many others, she asked: “Tell me, why are you people cleaning up trash?”  Over and over, she got the same response: “If Jesus were in our city, he wouldn’t just be preaching in a church, he’d be out sharing his love in practical ways.  So we are out cleaning up trash in the same spirit.”

The next day, a big article appeared on the front page of the national newspaper she worked for.  The headline read, “Christians Share Love by Serving!”  Even though everyone was talking about it, it was just a little thing.  It was something so simple and so humble that anyone could do it.  For a few hours, they just gave Jesus their hands so he could pick up garbage, and gave him their voices to announce his coming.  And wherever they went, Jesus miraculously transformed their humble gift of an average Saturday morning into a beacon—like a little star of Bethlehem—pointing the way to the Savior.

How about you?  You may not be able to travel to Kenya to preach, but you could clean up the trash in your neighborhood.  You may not be able to pick up beggars off the streets of Calcutta, but you could visit a homeless shelter this weekend to serve and pray for those who are there.  You may not be able to donate thousands of dollars to your favorite charity, but you could buy lunch for the person in line behind you at McDonald’s.

You get the picture.  It’s small things done with great love.  It’s a willingness to share your life with God—for whatever purpose.  It’s a willingness to share your love with those that God loves—to whatever end.

Sharing the Details

Your time and talents are not the only things God wants to share with you.  God desperately wants to share a friendship with you—an intimate, deep relationship.

Think of the things you share with your best friends: conversation, laughter, good times and bad times. . .

It’s what God wants with you, too.  More than anything else, God wants you to share the details of your life with him.  God wants you to tell him when and why you’re happy; God wants you to share with him the desires of your heart, your hopes for the future, and your joys in the present.

And God wants you to share with him your burdens: your fears, worries, doubts, and struggles.  Psalm 55:22 urges you to cast all your cares on God so he can sustain you and hold you up.

You might be poor, depressed, confused, captive to an addiction, or just in need of a little encouragement.  Whatever is going on with you, God wants you to share it with him so that he can help you bear it and overcome it.  Pouring out your heart to God gives you a confidant and more—it allows you to transfer your worries and hurts into God’s safekeeping.  It helps quiet your fears and make room for God’s Holy Spirit to flow in and become your comforter.

The overflowing life is all about giving to God and receiving from him.  These two things are eternally and inextricably linked.  If all you do is give and give and give and never receive, soon you’ll be empty and worn out.  Though it may start out as generosity, when you give and never receive, your giving becomes all about you.  It becomes condescending, prideful, and ultimately arrogant.  The love in it dies and shrivels into grudging obligation.  It becomes a selfish martyrdom that’s more about everything you’ve sacrificed than it is about the people you’re helping.  It’s ugly and it’s not what God desires.

As we’ve said over and over, God wants to fill you to overflowing with his love—and then you will always have more than enough to sincerely and gladly share with him and others.

Second Corinthians 9:8 says, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (NIV emphasis added).  There’s a promise!  When this verse says all grace it’s talking about the limitless, overflowing favor and blessings God wants to give you because he loves you.  Since it’s a gift, you don’t have to earn it by doing good works.  But you do have to constantly open up a space in your heart to receive all the things you need in all the times when you need them.

This means having an active, nonstop conversation with God like the one Jesus carried on with his Father throughout the Gospels.  This is what 1Thessalonians 5:17 means when it tells us to “pray without ceasing” (KJV).  A life abounding in every good work is the natural result.  As 2 Corinthians 9:10-11, says, “For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat”.  In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you.

Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.  And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God” (emphasis added).

Whatever you’ve got to share—be it talent, time, treasures, or just the troubles you’re worrying about right now—place it in God’s hands and it will be miraculously transformed into something that can change the world.

Getting Your Feet Wet  (feel free to comment here or on the Reflection Pool questions)

Find three things in your house that represent three areas of interest for you.  For example, you might choose a basketball because you play with your buddies every Tuesday, or you might choose a family photo to represent the importance you place on them.

Once you have your three items, pray and ask God how you can share each of those areas of interest with him.  Maybe you could invite someone new to play basketball each week?  Or maybe you and your family could devote one Saturday a month to neighborhood service?

Write your thoughts.

The Reflection Pool

• What do you find easiest to share with God?  Most difficult?  Why do you think that is?
• In the past, what’s happened when you chose to share something with God?