More than twenty years ago, as I was driving home one day, I began to see smoke come out from under the hood of my car. Before I fully pulled off the road, I heard a loud THUMP!
More than twenty years ago, as I was driving home one day, I began to see smoke come out from under the hood of my car. Before I fully pulled off the road, I heard a loud THUMP! My car was dead. A leaky radiator hose was the first domino to fall, resulting in the radiator exploding and my engine burning up. I remember seeing my car being towed away, as a friend gave me a ride to my house. When I got into my house, I noticed a book lying there with the following title, “Don't Sweat the Small Stuff… and it's all small stuff,” to which I let out an unexpected laugh, as the stress began to suddenly melt away. It really didn’t matter. It really was small. More than twenty years later, it’s just a memory – nothing extremely significant.
As Christians, why are we afforded the luxury of not having to sweat the small stuff? Why can we think of even the very daunting things of life as “small?” Is it because we disregard the feelings of others, the importance of money, or the value of time? Is it because we don’t have a firm understanding of personal responsibility and the coming judgment of this world? Quite the contrary!
Faithful Christians grasp firmly: “if God is for us who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31) The Hebrew writer encourages us, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say: ‘The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5, 6).
Children of God understand that because we must give account for our actions, we must put the desires of God over the feelings of others. Peter said, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” (2 Pet. 3:10-12). We understand the importance of earthly treasure, relative to the treasure we are to lay up in heaven.
We see time as but a mere testing ground of our faithfulness, as we endeavor to redeem it for the cause of Christ (Eph. 5:15). Our personal ambitions and priorities are aligned in such a way that we are not easily alarmed by the “stuff” that most of the world “sweats.” James says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (4:13-16).
There is a way that we can determine whether or not we have put God’s will first – that being “if the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” is guarding our hearts and minds (Php. 4:7). Your peace-level directly corresponds with your dependence on God. Someone who “sweats the small stuff” is living a life thinking that they can control everything… dependence on God has been brushed aside. Paul assures us, “that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom. 8:28). Do you think all things will work out for the good because you’ve got it together or because God has it together?
-Cary Gillis D.Min.
November 4, 2020Are You Sweatin' It?
