The Small and Local

If we desire to make wide sweeping change in the world, I think we must begin in the small and local. In today's global society we have become so enamored with the elephant-size agendas and global-change that we foolishly dismiss change at the local level as unimportant and insignificant. Nothing could be further from the truth!

If you look at the Scripture you'll quickly recognize that the seeds of God's global work almost exclusively begins in the small and local.

The world redeemer was born in a manger and raised in an unimpressive villiage called Nazareth. Conceived in the small and local.

A handful of men from the same local fishing village called Galilee, called by Jesus, would spear-head a movement that eventually changed the world. Conceived in the small and local.

A small group of men in England (the Wesleys and Whitefield) who met regularly for personal change were used by God to usher in sweeping change over the landscape of 18th century England through arguably the worlds most significant revival movement. Conceived in the small and local.

Our world today is bored and utterly unimpressed with the small and the local. But, God's ways indeed are conceived in the small and local.

The pulse of the gospel beats (I'd argue most powerfully) in the ordinary, the small and the local. When Jesus forged for us God's greatest desire for humanity, he did not call us to far-reaching global change, he commanded that we love our neighbor as ourself. Of course, within this "small and localish" sort of statement, rests Jesus' brilliant philosophy of global change. All global change, according to Jesus, must begin with personal love in the locality of my own small world. Want to think globally? Then act locally. It can be no other way.

Maybe God has called you to change the world. Maybe he has not. Either way, one thing is certain. All global change and subsequent transformation must start within the sphere of your own little life. Within your own heart. In your own home. With your neighbor. If change is to happen at all, it will begin in small and the local.

Everyday we have an opportunity to "embody the gospel" in these small and local ways.

Want to kill injustice? Love the neighbor who is taking advantage of you, melt his/her heart and gain their trust.

Want to see world hatred come to an end? Practice intentional acts of kindness directed towards those people who God has placed on your heart.

Want to put to death rampant individualism and the lonliness epidemic in American society? Take a young person going through a difficult time out for a coke, listen to their heart and model loving presence to them.

It really is simple. You see, if the kingdom of God is to flourish anywhere in your life it will, according to Jesus, not look like the cedars of Lebanon, but more like a small mustard seed.

Sort of takes the pressure off....the realization that I don't have to change the world, just do my part in being Jesus in the small and local. May you set your sights on those small and local opportunities that face you today. Act in the way of Jesus with those matters and let God take care of the sweeping-global changes.