My devotional readin today is from Today God is First by Os Hillman, titled Small Things.
By end of this month, it will be exactly 4 years from the day (31 July 2011) I left the corporate world. The decision to stay home to take care of the family was not any easy one and those days out of the marketplace was not easy too. I was so used to getting so much done in the marketplace being a manager. Although there is a fare share of problems and challenges, running huge projects with a big team of engineers motivates me daily. Suddenly, I found myself managing the "small" daily family chores, preparing kids to school, getting the meals ready when the my wife and kids comes back the evening, spending most my time alone reading and trading for a living. The morale and self-esteem level dropped to below sea-level.
Four years working at home seems like forty years in the desert. However, reflecting back on my walk in the valleys and over the peaks in the pass four years, I saw a slightly bigger picture of what God had planned for me. Although I will not be able to see the whole picture, those experiences doing small things forms the bigger picture of what I have achieved so far. Although they are still not perfect and the uncompleted part of the picture is still a mystery, it gave me the motivation to continue walking and doing the small things God asked me to do.
In the message by Os Hillman, he said:
"Jesus grew up as a carpenter's son and learned the trade from His daily routine. For 30 years He worked. When it was time to beging to fulfill His purpose for mankind, He countless stories of people and their work...He related to the everyday man because He Himself was one. This is why it was important for Him to have some personal work experience.
Life is filled with daily routines. Every now and then, God takes us to the mountaintop to experience His presence in a dramatic way. This is not a norm....Moses spent 40 years in preparation before he led the Israelites out of Egypt. Paul spend a great deal of his life working toward the wrong purpose until a dramatic event changed his life."
God uses work to develop character qualities that He plans to use at the appropriate time. We may not know when and how, but putting us where we are now is part of that great plan. Continuing doing the small things in our daily routine develops our faith and trustworthiness with God. Hillman ended his message: "The day-in and day-out grind of working life molds us and makes us into what God desires. God may be preparing you for something far greater. For now, however, you are learning the daily lessons of small things".
So, for those who felt the same way I did, don't be discourage for doing the small things daily leads us to His greater and bigger purpose.
