Seeing God's Glory in the Small Steps

We're off for the week, spending time down in Louisville, Kentucky with Nathan's brother and family, and reconnecting with many friends from the four years we lived here, as well as friends we've made on visits since our move back to Toronto, and a few friends FROM Toronto who are here for the same conference we're down for. Louisville is a place where we get to pick up where we left off with several people (Don't you love friends like that?). And it's also a place where we've already heard several times the question we'll hear several more times over the course of the week: How are things going with the church plant?

Depending on who asks it, that question can come with varying amounts of external pressure: everything from the person you know is really hoping to hear about hundreds gathered and many new Christians to the really good friends who would still support you if you told them it had totally failed (it hasn't), and all the people somewhere in between. But regardless of where the asker falls on that continuum, WE feel the desire to be able to talk of great revival and piles of visible fruit. WE want to feel we've accomplished something, that this endeavor is the best thing out there, that we deserve the full support of everyone who asks. And when we don't have an endless supply of stories about how we see God working, it's easy to want to exaggerate, to leave out the unpleasant bits and discouragements, to convince ourselves that things are far better than the reality. I've felt this temptation many times already this week!

But the sad thing is that when we embellish, when we pressure ourselves (or others pressure us) to produce jaw-dropping stories, we're actually discounting all the (really amazing) little things that God IS doing. We lose sight of the wonder that God would do ANYTHING through us because we're too caught up in wishing He'd do MORE. We cease to sing with the angels over one salvation because we haven't seen hundreds. We become so focussed on all that we don't see that we forget just how much God is doing under the surface that we can't yet see. And our hearts become consumed with just how great WE are (or aren't, as the case may be), so that we no longer look for God's greatness, which is very apparent if our eyes are open to see it.

We want to see great revival in Toronto and across Canada. We want Liberty Grace Church to flourish. We want God to use what we do to bear much fruit. But we don't want to be so caught up in seeking or expecting the next Great Awakening that we lose our gratefulness for each tiny step forward and each little heart change. And even when there is no fruit visible to our human eyes, yet we will rejoice in the Lord and take joy in the God of our salvation (Habakkuk 3:17-19).

I'm sure I'll hear that question more times this week (and for years to come). But when it comes, I pray I won't answer it out of a desire to make us look good, but rather out of a desire to make God look good. And that means both not exaggerating the good and also not getting so stuck in the difficulties that I don't give God credit for all the many things He IS doing in our midst. Because God's glory isn't just displayed in the spectacular. It's written across every little row ploughed, every tiny seed planted, every drop of rain that nourishes a few molecules of dry ground, each and every tender shoot that He brings to life, even when there are only a handful.