A BROKEN TOE
Recently I broke my big toe. I was repelling down the face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, when I smashed my foot on a cliff, and… Okay, how many of you believe that? Actually, I was organizing our pantry at home and dropped a twenty-five-ounce jar of spaghetti sauce. The jar didn’t break, but my toe broke its fall, and it broke my toe. But the Yosemite story sure sounds a lot cooler.
Don’t you find, more often than not, it’s the little things in life that get to us? Sure, we face El Capitan-sized problems—divorce, a job loss, cancer, death of a loved one. They’re devastating—but with God’s strength we get through those horrific ordeals, because they only occur a few times in life. But spaghetti sauce incidents come against us constantly: day after day, wearing us down like a grinding stone.
Your kid’s teacher calls and says your precious angel has been cutting classes. You swipe your credit card a bit too often, and your bill rivals the national debt. Or you drop a jar of spaghetti sauce on your toe. Each one, taken by itself, we can handle. But over time, this myriad of messes chips away at our fortitude.
In Matthew 6, Jesus addresses our propensity towards worry. In verse 25 he states, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” Having enough food and clothing is serious stuff. If we can’t let those concerns trouble us, then should we ever allow daily minutiae to weigh us down?
A naturalist showed a group of students a dead redwood tree. He explained that through the centuries the tree had endured lightning strikes, fires, and earthquakes—and stood strong. But in time, tiny beetles burrowed through the bark, and eventually, enough of these puny pests destroyed the tree. Don’t let the tiny beetles in life get to you. Surrender everything to God.
Yes, I limp around, wishing I could offer folks a more glamorous explanation for my broken toe. But I suppose it depicts 99% of everything that troubles us in life—the little things. Be careful handling spaghetti sauce, and it you drop it, move your foot. It’s better to break a jar than your big toe.
Principle: Don’t let the little things in life wear you down.
Ponder:
What “spaghetti-sauce” incidents have you encountered recently, and how did you handle them?
What thought process might help you handle these troubles in a healthier way in the future?
Pursue: For a deeper dive, study Matthew 6:25-34.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the strength you provide in times of major crisis. But today I pray for patience during the little everyday incidents that can wear me down. Please give me the power to endure.
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