Random or Intentional?

 

Last Friday, since we were on our way back from San Antonio, I did not post any elephant on this blog. Tomorrow – also a Friday -- we will be in Lawrence to see our daughter.  So I’m going to post this week’s elephant(s) today. 

Today, I am doing something a little different as I will commenting on a group of elephants who have one feature in common:  their miniature size. These elephants sometimes get ignored in my collection, being overpowered by so many other larger, more unusual pachyderms.  For sometime, I have believed they are more noticed by any guests, or children, because I had them grouped together in the front of others in my collection.  This morning I was looking at each one very carefully, and realized that I had never really paid attention to the distinct features of each elephant.  I had only attended to their common characteristic – their tiny size. 

Sometimes we get “lost in the group”…we lose our identity…who each of us is in God’s sight.  The unique gifts with which God endowed each of us get enmeshed in the group identify which quite often becomes the voice of those who are loudest among us.

Jesus said “blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”  (Matt. 5:5) In our Western culture bigger is better. But here’s the rub: nothing is ever quite big enough.   So if we can’t be “big” by ourselves, we join a group that implies “bigness” – and lose our individual voice.

I believe there is a place for the “group”, particularly within the Church – the universal Church -- as believers come together as the body of Christ.  God does great things with the “body” if it is listening, collectively.  But that’s a “whole other topic”.

Here’s what I’m really getting to: truly few of us are called to do great things.  Most of us are rather called to do small things, but within the great power of God.  In this light, what is too small a matter that it no longer concerns God? And what tiny gift do I have to offer someone in the name of Christ?

These tiny elephants are each unique, and their small size and exclusiveness remind me of how important small things can be in one’s live.  Tiny things such as a smile or kind word may make someone else’s really rotten day, salvageable.  We hear the saying “pay it forward” and if we honor that in our daily living, we know that whatever we do, no matter how small, may have enormous consequences to the lives of others, to the future.

To me, the second of the great commandments, “Love your neighbor as yourself”  (Matthew 12: 31) is nothing more than living moment by moment, practicing love and kindness.  Random acts of kindness are fine, but I believe we come closer to God’s purpose to us when we engage in intentional acts of kindness in the only the manner that each of us with our uniqueness can do.

Today, I will practice small acts of kindness, not randomly, but with intention and appreciate the power of each act to make a difference to someone else.  And that may be as close to “inheriting the earth” as I need to get!