Little Is Much When God Is In It

“The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: ‘Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.’ But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish.” – Jonah :1-3

One of my favorite hymns (that was introduced to me during my time here at CPC) is the hymn “Little Is Much When God Is in It” (#490 for those interested in looking it up in our hymnal.) I not only love it for its ragtime tune, but I really find the message it brings so important for Christians to hear. Especially us Christians in churches that are still struggling to find our footing in a post-Christendom West. It is a common frustration among many pastors to hear from their congregants a pining for the past. To be reminded of how big programs used to be. How many kids used to be in the Youth Group. How many people used to be on the membership rolls. In the hymn the second verse reads,

“Does the place you’re called to labor

Seem too small and little known?

It is great if God is in it,

And He’ll not forget His own.”

This verse popped into my head today as I received an update from a Japanese couple that I support with my missions giving. They work in Japan, a country whose people are near and dear to my heart, spreading the gospel to a largely unreached population. They work for the Presbyterian Church in Japan, one of the larger Protestant denominations in the country, whose membership numbers between 2-3 thousand. That’s crazy when you think of our context here in the United States where our denomination alone is more than 1,000,000 members and that an entire Presbyterian denomination can fit inside one mega-church here in the states. I bring this up because we had our VBS and VBS is one of those programs where we can often be tempted to look back at the past and compare where it used to be decades ago with today. Well, this couple that I support, Shori and Saki Sunigawa (you can read about them here and support them here), helped at the Bible Camp for their denomination that was for kids across Japan and out of the whole denomination they had 27 kids show up. This could lead to major discouragement, but as Christians we need to reject those voices and the Sunigawas summed it up well saying, “Many students said they were touched once again by what Jesus did on the cross to remove the veil. Saki connected well with girls in the small group she led. There were two girls in my group who are not believers, and they each shared about a struggle that has been a heavy burden on their shoulders. Please pray that they will meet Jesus, who can carry their burden.”

Now, ask yourself what is more important. Having hundreds or thousands of kids who will be there, listen, and feel nothing, or to have two in whose lives you could actually make a difference? The Christian perspective is for the latter. As our Lord says, “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15:7) So 2 kids is great if God is in it.

This reminded me of the story of Jonah. Oftentimes when we look for big impact in our ministry we look to get as many people as possible because numbers = success. Sometimes this is the case, and large numbers isn’t a bad problem to have. But if Jonah was looking for lots of numbers God gave it to him. He gave him Nineveh a world capital. But sometimes it isn’t just numbers. Jonah hated the Assyrians and knew that going there might kill him. Even though it was a large harvest, Jonah didn’t want it because of other temporal reasons.

As we get into the new church year and all our ministries are starting up in full force, I think we often can be tempted into patterns of thought that draw us away from the place where the Lord has called us. Either drawing us back into a past that we cannot return to, or to tempt us with greener pastures elsewhere. No! Neither of these things are what the Lord has given us. He has given us this call here and now and it is our job to be faithful with whatever he has given us lest we run into the same mistake as Jonah.

So, this year I encourage you to get involved. Join a ministry that you think is important. Invite others. Where is God calling you in our church? Challenge yourself, show up for things you normally wouldn’t. Attempt to learn something new. Be faithful with what God has given you and you will see his mighty hand at work. Do all of these things for the glory of God.

Pastor George