Dear Friends,
“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much.”
Those are words from the Gospel this Sunday, and they are words that echo so much of my father’s character and teaching. There were so many ways that he taught me that how we do any little thing is how we do everything. I’ll never forget doing math homework in the fourth grade grade—lined notebook paper, #2 yellow pencil—and struggling to get the answers correct. When I showed my father my work, he checked it and then invited me to go back and make any erasures complete so that my work would be more legible. He regularly offered to shine my shoes—even into adulthood!—whenever he noticed them becoming a little scuffed. Being careful with our possessions, making something easier for a teacher to read, these were small acts of care and consideration that added up to one’s character.
I used to scoff at such things, thinking that there were bigger fish to fry, more important things in life, that I wanted to do big things (save the world?) and didn’t have time for the little. As I get older, I’m changing my mind.
I’ve been thinking a lot about character, specifically Christian character, and how we grow in holiness. That sentence sounds old-fashioned, but I think this question matters, especially in an angry, volatile, snarky, mean time. I find myself becoming infected with impatience, allowing fear to bubble up as anger, worry over the world allowing me to be impatient with the person in front of me.
And I wonder if we have failed to be faithful in little things. Things like taking our AirPods out when checking out at the store so we can talk to the person at the cash register. Like waving someone in to merge in traffic. Like putting our phones down and away and looking our friend, our spouse, our child in the eye and really listening to them without fidgeting, without thinking of what to say next. Things like saying “thank you” and stopping to help someone who is struggling. Things like refraining from the angry comment in person or on social media.
These small things add up over a lifetime. If we want to be humble, then we must talk less about ourselves, share credit, point away from ourselves and toward others, review our faults, and ask God to help us become humble. A lifetime of that, we pray, helps us grow into a kind, humble person who thinks more of others than of ourselves. In Christian talk, that’s sanctification, growing in holiness. Choose the virtue you want to cultivate (kindness, patience, prudence, justice) and start small. It’s not splashy or exciting, but when I think about what matters and who I want to be as a person, it’s coming to seem more and more essential.
So in a time of grand gestures and loud, clanging voices, I’m trying focus on being faithful in small, person-to-person ways, praying that if I am faithful in these ways, I might be faithful in large ways, too.
See you in church!
Faithfully, Suzanne+