Dear Friends

One sign of maturity of character is when an individual keeps things ‘in proportion’ as opposed to focusing on trivial and minor matters. Jesus condemned the Pharisees of His time because, as He put it, ‘they would strain out a gnat but would swallow a camel’. What He meant by this was that they particularly focused on little matters, but ignored weightier matters such as justice and mercy and truth.

I often hear people complain about ‘this or that’ in their lives but in many cases, the subject of their complaint is so trivial that it only serves to demonstrate their own spiritual immaturity. Not long ago I heard one pastor give a perfect example of this from his own congregation. This particular minister was told by a member of the congregation that he had conducted the Christmas Carol Service very well, but that the service had been spoilt by the fact that ‘the size of the straw in the Christmas crib was disproportionate to the size of the crib’. The pastor said to me that he wished people would ‘grow up’. The Bible teaches the same thing! We must not give trivial things any greater prominence than they deserve, otherwise we are disobeying the clear teaching and example set by Christ throughout His earthly ministry.

Some of you may well have heard about the life of Sadie Smithson. Sadie was born in West Virginia into a respectable but relatively poor family. Of all the things that Sadie craved, above all she craved to be allowed to join ‘The Laurel Literary Society’. To her this would be a passport to moving in high literary circles. After she graduated, she applied to join, but was turned down. After a while she worked out a plan. She decided to do a tour of Europe and then write a journal of the events that occurred along the way. When this work got published she would then manage to join the ‘Literary Society’.

It is interesting how God taught her the folly of ‘idolised desire’. The tour took place in the late spring and early summer of 1914 and incredibly she got caught up in the opening events of World War 1. Sadie had reach Belgium at the time that her life and attitude was about to change dramatically. She was on the road to Paris when her driver lost his way and they found themselves crossing a battlefield. Right beside the car lay a young soldier, badly wounded. Instinctively Sadie got out the car to help him. He looked into her eyes and moaned “water”. She went down to a nearby spring and gave the young lad a drink of water before he died in her arms. Slowly she began to perceive that there were dying soldiers all around her. She tore her shirt into bandages, she scribbled notes and messages for loved ones, and as she worked with each wounded man she offered that well known prayer “the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you”. All night she tended those men. When an ambulance arrived the next day and she was asked what on earth a lady like her was doing out in a battlefield, she famously replied “I’ve been holding hell back all night”; to which the doctor replied” I’m glad you held some of it back for everybody else in the world was letting it loose last night”.

When she returned to America she was asked to write her story with the promise of joining the ‘Literary Society’. Sadie replied “I’ve been face to face with war and death and hell and God. Now little things like the ‘Laurel Literary Society’ don’t matter to me any more. I’ve learnt a lesson I shall never forget. Keep trivial things in their place”. “What does matter” asked a friend? “Nothing” Sadie said, “Nothing but God and love and doing what I can do for those He sends me to”. When we truly follow Christ and see things as He sees them our perspectives change. The trivial and the important change places.

Your pastor and friend