Faithful with the little things....

Luke 10:16

“If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.”

I was just talking to the Infuzion group about this one the weekend, and I thought that is it was meaningful enough to warrant a blog post. As I was preparing for the lesson on Sunday morning I was reminded of when it was that I first had this verse applied to me. It was in an odd place… the dentist chair… my orthodontist when I was a young. Both he and his assistant at the time were Christians and they noticed that after a few months my teeth were not moving the way that they should have been… See I had this appliance I had to wear. I was supposed to wear it most of the time. I was only supposed to take it out to eat. Of course being the teen that I was, I didn’t always keep it in. In fact, for a few months it was just worn a few days before the appointment each month. Obviously, not enough time to do the change that it was supposed to with my teeth.

So there I sat in the chair. They knew I had not been wearing the appliance. I knew I had not been wearing the appliance. The question was asked, “SO, Jason, have you been wearing your appliance all the time?” I respond with, “Maybe not as much as I should.” I think I should have said, “for the last couple of days.” The Dental Assistant says to me, “Be faithful with the little things….” And she trailed off. Dr. Deacon said, “Amen”. I knew what the rest of the verse was.

Shortly after that I chose to stop doing the ortho treatment. I had gone for several years to get it all done. I had teeth pulled out. I had some worn braces and now here I was nearing the end and I didn’t finish it. I still to this day have the one tooth that Dr. Deacon couldn’t turn because of my negligence.

It was something simple. I should have just done it, and followed through to the end, and look what it did? So as I was preparing this lesson, the verse rattled around in my head. The bible tends to do that to people. It challenges them where they are at. It helps them go where they should go… if they heed its words. What areas of my life had I been slacking off in? What areas should I tighten up and get back to being faithful in?

Youth leader Ron Luce does a teaching on the difference between excellence and obedience. Excellence can look really good to those looking at you, but it really only looks good, and hides the flaws. Obedience complies with how God wants us to live, and doesn’t really take into account how other people factor in for appearance sake.

Dear God, help me be faithful, obedient, and to heed your words instead of the things around me. Amen.