The third church I pastored had over 600 members. Ministry was moving along swimmingly for me. With a bigger and better calling on the horizon. Or was it?

Not so. In a flash, it all came tumbling down. I was a cousin to Humpty Dumpty. Finished. Kaput. Or was I?

Seventeen years later, while enjoying a financial planning career, I met with a group from a church just around the corner, down the street from the one I left years ago. This one had only eighteen members of what had been a vibrant church. In its denomination’s eyes, they’re taking their last gasps of breath as they’re told that it’s time to sell and move on. Too little, too late. The gig’s up. Or was it?

Yet they want me to be their pastor. Me? And was it bothersome that the mighty me, I, and myself had fallen? Am I being relegated to some prodigal pastor’s far country? That my beefed-up dreams had evaporated? Or had they?

In the Old Testament book of Haggai, the people of Israel return to the promised land after a dismal and disappointing exile, only to find their Temple in rack and ruin. Then the Lord tells them to remodel. Yet, as if in a stupor, they gaze sadly at something little in their eyes. Nothing like what some remember. Little of the grandeur that they’d heard about from their elders. Haggai 1: 7-9–“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little.'”  

How about you? Is there something in your life that seems little, puny, and inconsequential? Not what you’d hoped for? Or dreamed of? Why not let the Lord make of it whatever He wants. Let Him decide the importance. Success is determined by His standards. Place it In His hands. Why not?

That’s what I decided to do. After being asked to lead this little group of God’s people and before my first Sunday, I gathered a few friends to pray with me for the Lord to do whatever He wanted. We walked every hall. Entered every room. Praying all the time. No holds barred. I want His dreams and not mine. For a change. Will it be? This time?

Someone said this–‘Little things are little things. Faithfulness in little things is a big thing.’ Twenty-four years later, that church family is still letting their light shine for Jesus. A younger man has been faithfully serving the Lord as I’ve moved along to write, well, what you’ve just been reading. And guess what? No ‘For Sale’ signs in front of that church anywhere to be seen! Pretty awesome, isn’t it?

And you? Is it time to let go, as best that any of us can, and let God do what He does best? With your life? Leaving the results in His hands? Why not? 

Lord Jesus, have your way in my life. I trust you and love you. Amen.