Member Care Radio is excited about a new venture and partnership with LeRucher Ministries based in France.
LeRucher Ministries is well known for it’s debriefing seminars, but also for it’s Ethnic Reconciliation work. Over the past 10 years LeRucher has developed a great resource that in partnership we hope to bring to you in a radio format.
To find out more.. visit www.lerucher.org
Really?
Well … maybe … for some things.
But aren’t the details part of the big picture?
No I don’t mean we all need to be perfectionists. Far from it. Anyone who knows me, knows that I’m not a perfectionist. I’m human. I can’t be perfect. But that doesn’t mean that everything only requires broad brush strokes with no details. It’s some of the details that many times gives meaning to the finished result.
I saw an example of this the other day as I was walking on a country road. A cluster of tiny flowers nestled down in the grass beside the road. 99.999999% of people who passed by probably never saw those flowers. If anything they saw a faint red-orange shading to some of the grass and passed it by without a closer look. I’ve only seen those clusters in three or four places. They seem to be pretty rare — around here anyway.
A closer look found a detail that God seems to think was important enough, even though most people never see it. A tiny flower (1/2 inch) 1 cm across when it is fully open (it closes up at night).
© Photo by A. Stewart
I have no idea why God took the time to put so much detail into this tiny flower. But I’m glad he did.
It tells me that God is interested in the tiny details of my life that no one else knows about. The details that I don’t really think anyone else sees or particularly would care about even if they did see them. But God sees those details, and he cares about them.
It tells me something else too.
Maybe I should care a little more about some of the details of the work I am doing for him … and some of the details of the people around me. I think God cares about those things.
We’ve all heard (I think) the expression … he couldn’t see the forest for the trees. How about turning that around? Are we guilty of not seeing the trees because all we see is the forest … the big picture?
Sure we need to see the big picture. That’s important. And sometimes it can be “bad” to focus on only the details that are close to us. But let’s not let that become an excuse to overlook “all” the details. Some of them are important. Without them the “big picture” wouldn’t exist.
God certainly didn’t ignore the details in grass gone to seed at the side of a dusty road.
© Photo by A. Stewart
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (Matt 6:30 NIV)
I like the way Eugene Peterson puts it in the Message Bible. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?
So … God pays attention to your details.
What details have you been overlooking?
Okay. I’ll admit it. Where we live is rural. Some friends say we live in the wilderness. Sometimes it feels like that.
And yes we have wild turkey’s wandering around here from time to time. One bunch — herd, flock — whatever you want to call them, was wandering through the property the other day. Doing the wandering turkey thing. Slowly plodding along like they do all day, every day. Making little gurgling noises. Pecking here and there at the ground for tasty morsels of something.
That’s what life is usually like for them. That’s their life routine. During the day. At night they sort of fly up into some fairly low branches of a convenient tree to perch for the night while they sleep. And keep away from predators.
The other day, though, we saw the turkeys do something we had never seen before. They gave up their routine 
jobs. They stopped plodding. And they flew. High. They were flying 80 or 90 feet (25 or more meters) high, at tree top level. Yes that’s right turkeys. A dozen of them who usually didn’t do anything so exciting. Each probably weighed about 35 pounds (16kg). And they landed in the tops of trees.
So what happened? Did they trade in their routine jobs for something more exciting? More uplifting? Not exactly. It was a momentary break in the routine for them. An hour later they were back at ground level, doing the normal turkey thing. Plodding and pecking and making little noises.
So what caused the change in activity?
Motivation.
Compelling, and inspiring motivation.
They were motivated – all at the same time – to do something totally different. Motivated to use some talents they hadn’t used for awhile. I’d like to think it was a little exciting for them.
And what was the motivation?
The neighbor’s dog. She gave them a motivational speech, and they didn’t wait for her to finish. They were immediately inspired to do something different. Fly. High. And get a different perspective on their lives from the high branches of trees.
We’re kind of like that, aren’t we? Some of us. Plodding through each day. Pecking away at our routines of work. Making little sounds to each other as we move through the day. And the next day is the same.
What kind of motivation do you suppose it would take to get us off the ground? To get us to change our routine? To do something new? Exciting? Different? To fly a little higher? To get a fresh new perspective on our lives and work?
Who knows. Maybe God has something new for you (and me) in 2010. Maybe we have some talents or abilities we haven’t used very much that God wants us to use.
Are you ready to be motivated to fly higher? To do something new and fresh and effective? Different?
Listen for the motivation.
Not a dog barking.
Listen for God speaking, saying “I’ve got something I want you to do.”
And then start flying…..
Al Stewart
Member Care Media
