The Little Things

The Little Things

Paul Martin: “Hey man, I figured out what your first assignment is going to be when you get here!”

Me: “Oh yea! And what’s that?”

Paul Martin: “Well… we have 3,000 American flags that we are going to plant in the front yard of our church building in two weeks. You are going to assemble a team of volunteers, come up with a strategy, and get them all planted….oh and I want them to spell out a word…a word that has something to do with memorial day….can you do it?”

Me: “psh, no problem, I got this”

            That was the last conversation that I had with Pastor Paul Martin before driving half-way across the country for my ministerial internship at New Life Church in Leominster, Massachusetts. And right now, I am going to be brutally honest with you. When I said, “ yea, I got this”, what I was actually wanting to say was, “Yo, are you nuts man?...No I can’t do that!, I’m training to become a pastor, not a landscaper”. But somehow, I just didn’t have the…guts, to say how I really felt. So naturally, I did what any overconfident 21 year-old would do. “Daaad…?..Daaaaaaad…?...I need help!” I felt like I was back in 4th grade asking my dad to help me with my math homework. I was just lost. Nevertheless, I knew that eventually I would have to figure this one out on my own and just try my best. And honestly, 3,000 flags isn’t too bad right?

One week later

Paul Martin: “Hey Austin! So glad that you are here, can’t wait to get this thing started! How was the trip?”

Me: Hey! “The trip was nice, but I never want to drive through Pennsylvania again haha!”

Paul Martin: “Yea, that is a gross drive for sure. So did you hear that we decided not to put out the 3,000 flags?”

Me: “No way! Seriously? (At this point I was ecstatic)”

Paul Martin: “Yea…we decided we should plant 6,280 flags instead.”

Me: “wait, is this a joke?”

Paul Martin: No way man, I’m serious. We will plant one for every soldier who has fallen in the Iraq and Afghanistan war. Can you get it done?”

Me: “yea…umm…sure thing….yea, I got this!”

            Ok, at this point, the only things that I wanted were my blankly and my mommy; and maybe my stuffed bear if mom could find it. The bottom line was, I was scared out of my mind. I tried to play it cool like I had everything under control, but once again, my, “yea, I got this”, should have been translated as “oh dear God, I’m in huge trouble”. I was 1,400 miles away from home, I didn’t know anybody, I had never done any kind of landscaping job in my life (not even the simple decorative kind). And I had certainly never used 6,280 American flags to display a patriotic message in a church lawn. And conveniently enough, the church sits on Main Street in Leominster and has 22,000 cars driving past it on an average day. Translation: This project needed to look perfect because the whole city would be seeing it!

            As the “project day” drew nearer, I became more and more nervous. I was stressed, a bit frustrated and losing sleep over this looming task. Between pastor Mike Maleto, Pastor Paul Martin and myself, we had somewhat mapped out the logistics of the project, however it was still up to me to get the team of volunteers and execute the plan. I honestly thought to myself, “there is no way I can do this”. I had to just face the facts: we were a few days from project day, we had almost 6,300 flags to plant, it had to display a one-word Memorial Day message, and I only had three guaranteed volunteers? Awesome! My recruiting skills were looking worse than the Kansas City Chiefs football team up to this point, which is just terrible by the way. So I started to get desperate. And in my desperation, I started to pray. When I started to pray, I actually felt kind of foolish. Here I was asking the God of the universe (who looks after more than seven billion people daily) to send me helpers to plant American flags in the grass. Seems a bit selfish right? Well, I had nothing to lose so I gave it a shot. And God, like he often does, shot back.

            Three days, one 16-foot tall word (“Remember”), 20 volunteers, and 6,280 American flags later, our little (or should I say “ridiculously massive”) project was completed, and adorning the front page of the local newspaper. Now, I don’t like to over-spiritualize situations, but I can honestly say that this was a God thing! I prayed that God would send the right volunteers with the right imaginations to get this project off of the paper and on to the grass. And that is exactly what He did. One guy named Paul showed up with a massive tape measure that stretched from end to end of the lawn, another guy named Dennis showed up with large spool of string which we stretched across the whole lawn for strait line boundaries, and one guy even brought pitchers of fruit punch and iced-water to keep us hydrated (I nearly bowed to him as he pulled a stack of cups out of his pocket). It was just awesome to see people, whom I had never even met or spoken to, show up to help with this project. I know that it was the provision of God. And to be real with you, I felt like a dummy for having such little faith during the whole process.

            I should have known that God would work it out. But that is just how we are isn’t it? Many times we think that God is too busy being Superman and saving the world to actually show up when we have a seemingly small need. The Great thing about God however, is that, unlike superman, He can be in every place at every time on every day. And he has the ability to move in every situation if he so pleases. One of my favorite examples of this dimension of God’s character comes out of 2 Kings chapter 6.

 1The company of the prophets said to Elisha, “Look, the place where we meet with you is too small for us. 2Let us go to the Jordan, where each of us can get a pole; and let us build a place there for us to live.”

And he said, “Go.”

3Then one of them said, “Won’t you please come with your servants?”

“I will,” Elisha replied. 4And he went with them.

They went to the Jordan and began to cut down trees. 5As one of them was cutting down a tree, the iron axhead fell into the water. “Oh, my lord,” he cried out, “it was borrowed!”

6The man of God asked, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it there, and made the iron float. 7“Lift it out,” he said. Then the man reached out his hand and took it.

            See, God didn’t have to use Elisha and retrieve that Axe out of the water. That was just a petty need that seemed so small in the grand scheme of things. Still yet, retrieving the axe was important to that man who dropped it, therefore it was important to God. And God decided to work on his behalf, even in this small matter. You see, God cares about the little things! For me, both the experience that I had with the flag project and this passage, have opened my eyes to the fact that God cares about the little things (my mom has been trying to tell me this for years by the way). Many times it seems like we don’t ask for God’s favor or miraculous work in a situation because we don’t want to bother him, but guess what, that bothers him. I believe that our non-requestive spirit often bothers God. It seems that God desperately wants us to take every need to him, no matter how small, wouldn’t you agree?. In Matthew chapter seven, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you”. Our God cares about the little things, but how often do we fail to ask him? God will act in our favor, according to his will…but first, we have to bring the situation to His feet. Even when we feel awkward about it. We have to lay the needs down, even when it feels a bit foolish, or petty, or even selfish. We have to remember that God cares about the little things even when He has big things on his plate!

Peace

Love

God Bless

            Now that the “Remember” flag project is completed, I can say that I am truly blessed to have been a part of it! Shout out to Pastor Paul Martin for dreaming up this project and believing that I could lead it! He taught me the true meaning of the Matthew 9:38 instruction! Shout out to all the volunteers from New Life Church who helped make it possible! And Shout out to God who signed, sealed, and delivered the entire project!