Recently, I read Drew Dyck's book, Just Show Up, and I have found its message so important that I keep buying copies and giving them away to people who either need to take its message to heart or already embody it.
In it, Drew talks about the fact that we, as American Christians, are given a very performative message for our entire lives. We are told that we are meant to save the world. In churches with a politically conservative bent, phrases like "take back our country" and "culture warrior" are used. More progressive churches tend to use words like impact, save, and justice. But the message is the same. We are meant to change the world. But scripture doesn't talk about that. It talks about faithfulness. It talks about self-control. It talks about local activity and taking care of family. While Peter and Paul traveled extensively, most ancient Christians did not. The point Drew makes is that if each of us, every one, were faithful in our own context, that would, in fact, change the world because we would all be effecting our part of it.
This week, at a funeral, I was reminded of an example of this in action. A family friend from the church I grew up in died from a massive stroke last week. At his funeral, a middle-aged woman got up to speak. Through tears, she talked about how this couple came and picked her up for church every week - Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night for years (not to mention special events, choir practice, and talent competitions). After she moved out of her childhood home, they continued to pick up her mother every time she wanted to come to church. A ride is a small thing, but the consistency with which they did it was anything but. This girl got Christian community and Biblical training she would not have had if they had not been faithful in this small, local act.
There are people with big needs in our world, and it is right that we address them. But, when we do, it is often a one-time (or perhaps annual) fundraiser or service event. Meanwhile, all around us are small but constant needs. Needs for rides, for a place to stay, for electric bills, for car repair, for study help - needs for encouraging words or someone to sit with at lunch. Look around, and you will see them.
When the woman with the issue of blood reached out to touch the hem of Jesus' garment, He was on his way to the home of Jairus, to heal his daughter (and ultimately raise her from death). He allowed Himself to be "distracted" by the common and unclean woman right in front of Him. You may be on your way to do something big while passing by many other needs. Don't move so fast that you cannot see and pause to meet those "smaller" needs around you. Chances are that you will have more impact on the life of one person than you could ever have doing "something big." If we all took care of the small needs around us, there would be fewer of the big needs. This was the call of the early church, who "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer" and who "sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need." When they took care of each other consistently, they were "changing the world." They were just doing it one family at a time.
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