Spiritual Enlightenment, part 3

The Acceptance of Your Small Place in Reality

"He who saves one life has saved the world entire." __Ancient Jewish proverb__

Everyone wants to do something big, right? From our earliest days we want to be someone important, someone with something to contribute to the world. We want to be superheroes, firemen, policemen, and fighter pilots. They’re realities seem far more impressive and they are certainly more visible than what most of us end up doing with our lives. My almost-four-year-old thinks that he is Spiderman. He has the costume to prove it. He is old enough to dream big dreams and desire a grandiose life of deeds for the good of humanity. Very few of us ever get to play the big role that we dreamed about all through our childhood.

But all of us have a part to play in the working out of God’s kingdom come here, now, today.

Here’s the problem with looking for the grandiose task: we miss the everyday, commonplace, run of the mill tasks that make up the warp and woof of life. We are not talking about career choices here, but our day-to-day life tasks that involve our families, friends, communities, and even our enemies. All of us have a part to play, a role that is all our own. It is neither more nor less grand than anyone else’s task. It simply is what it is.

Look, here’s the thing: we are small in the grand scheme of things, a blip on the eternal radar scope. And that is being generous. When you are dealing with the scope of human history and the unending beginning and ending of eternal “time,” it puts your place in this world in perspective. Here’s the rub: you still play an important part, no matter how infinitesimal small it may seem. If you and I can come to grips with our place in reality then it alters how we see our daily routines, daily work, and the daily grind of the ins and outs of life. It all takes on a fantastic new meaning that somehow, in some small way, perhaps unbeknownst to us, changes the world.

shalom, matt