Sweating for the Bigger Stuff
I came to Global Missions, two years ago, after spending twenty-eight years on the mission field, because of love:
- Love for God
- Love for missions (Missio Dei; Latin for the “Mission of God”)
- Love for the missionaries
- Love for souls
That’s the big picture; one that I cannot allow to become blurred. It’s a matter of survival. Without the big picture I lose focus and become frustrated. I start sweating the small stuff.
Many have heard of the book, “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff and It’s All Small Stuff: Simple Ways to Keep the Little Things From Taking Over Your Life (Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff Series). It’s encouraging stuff; light reading with huge punch.
One person wrote, “’In fact one of the greatest things I read in the book was a little chapter called ‘Remind Yourself That When You Die, Your In-basket Won’t be Empty’. Some other thought provoking chapters are entitled ‘Ask Yourself the Question: Will This Matter a Year from Now?’, ‘Search for the Grain of Truth in Others Opinions’, ‘See the Glass as Already Broken’, ‘When in Doubt About Who’s Turn it is To Take Out the Trash, Go Ahead and Take it Out’”
I struggle with the finding ministry and productivity in the small stuff I do. The challenge is to find the Mission in the minuscule, mundane, menial, and minute; to view the moment in light of eternity; to go beyond the mediocre for excellence. We’ve got to have that. It’s a matter of survival; life and death for success in overall ministry.
James Poitras 