“We don’t know and aren’t responsible for the results, but realizing the extraordinary things God can do with our ordinary acts of love, we need to always choose love. We plant the seed and water the seed, but God makes it grow.”- Kyle Idleman
Kyle Idleman concludes Chapter 12 of One At a Time with the last three obstacles to living our story one at a time.
Obstacle 2: Too insignificant to have an impact. Sometimes we view the help we offer as too insignificant to make a difference. As a result, such a viewpoint holds us back from loving people one at a time.
However, Pastor Idleman points out, at times we view the need as insignificantly small. Hence, while we feel we can do it, we wonder if our actions will matter. Consequently, Kyle counsels, that’s not our decision to make. Whatever we offer, we must trust God to use. In addition, Kyle loves this statement commonly attributed to Mother Teresa: “God hasn’t called us to do great things; he’s called us to do small things with great love.”
Obstacle 3: Too busy to be bothered. Since Pastor Idleman began his study of how Jesus loved one at a time, he’s noticed two things:
- loving people always meant meeting a need
- those needs invariably presented themselves as interruptions to Jesus’s agenda
For example, in Matthew 14 a Canaanite woman asked Jesus to heal her daughter. But the disciples urged Jesus to send her away. Perhaps the disciples thought the timing was poor. Yet Jesus, faced with that choice, chose one at a time.
Obstacle 4: Too much investment without a guaranteed return. Certainly, Kyle observes, we hope that the Holy Spirit leads the people we serve one at a time to faith. However, often we don’t get to see the results. Therefore, Pastor Idleman explains:
“When we connect with and meet one need at a time, we have no certainty about what will happen, but we do have faith. We trust God with the results. Results are up to him. Our role is to love one at a time.”
Today’s question: How have you witnessed the effects of our ordinary acts of love? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: the annotated bibliography of One At a Time
