Oh, Brother Lawrence, Where Art Thou?
"It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God." -Brother Lawrence
We live in a complex world. We face an increasing list of demands and expectations every day. I look at my children, who are still so young, and I feel an anxiety in my spirit. I know the anxiety that I feel over this ever increasing list of demands and expectations will only be amplified by the time they reach college. With the invention of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and all of the other social media platforms, the entire world has an upfront and personal look into the way that you are handling all of that pressure. We add filters to photos, take multiple pictures (trying to get it just right), and leave out the stories of struggle that often accompany our small successes. It isn't enough to do reasonable service any more. Your job, your family, your coffee, your meals, all have to be exceptional. As our young people are graduating from college, they are experiencing the pressure of landing the perfect job. For many, finishing that college degree brought with it a crushing amount of debt. An entry level, low paying job, would be crushing to their ego and pocket book.
As a pastor, I feel that pressure all too often. I love, love, love our church. We usually have no more than 16 people meeting in our living room every week. We share a meal together and then share in our worship gathering. Because of our numbers we are able to have deep conversation about the texts for the week. We are able to really share the challenges and the successes that we have experienced throughout the week. We have developed true and lasting friendships with our members. Yet, when I get around a bunch of other pastors and church leaders, I somehow feel like I am failing in some way. Judging from conversations that I've had with other church leaders, I'm not alone in this. If your church has 100 members, you start looking at the church with 500 members. If you have 500 members you start looking at the church with 1,000. The larger your church, the more likely you are to be asked to speak at conferences. The more conferences you speak at, the more likely you are to be asked to write a book, and on and on and on. Church growth means success and success somehow means wisdom. The Richard Warrens, Timothy Kellers, Joyce Meyers, and David Platts of the church world, set the tone for the entire church. This can be for the good and the not so good. These people have millions of readers, massive influence and insane budgets. Far too often, that success and those budgets do not equate to increased wisdom.
Over the last few years, I have come across a few smaller voices in our church history that may have something to say to our love affair with fame. Let me be clear that I am not saying success is bad. Some people are doing and saying fresh, life giving, and transformational things that are being noticed by large numbers of people. Those things are good, they just aren't the only good things.
Therese of Lisieux was one of these heroes of the faith. When she first came to the Carmel of Lisieux she thought that she would study and eventually became a Saint. She was determined, like so many of us as we enter into our calling. She learned quite quickly that she was much smaller than she had originally hoped. She meditated on the Proverb which reminded her that
"Whosoever is a little one, let him come to me"
She was determined from that point forward that her relationship with God would not be dependent on grand gestures of faith and great successes but on the little way. She wrote at on time:
Sometimes, when I read spiritual treatises in which perfection is shown with a thousand obstacles, surrounded by a crowd of illusions, my poor little mind quickly tires. I close the learned book which is breaking my head and drying up my heart, and I take up Holy Scripture. Then all seems luminous to me; a single word uncovers for my soul infinite horizons; perfection seems simple; I see that it is enough to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God's arms. Leaving to great souls, to great minds, the beautiful books I cannot understand, I rejoice to be little because only children, and those who are like them, will be admitted to the heavenly banquet.
For Terese of Lisieux, humility was enough. It is funny that this woman who died so young and was fixed on doing small things of faith as an expression of love to God, is seen as such a hero of faith.
Brother Lawrence was another one of these heroes of the faith. He was born in in the 1600's in France. He worked as a soldier until he was injured. He considered himself clumsy, inept and not very skilled. When he took up work and residence in a monastery, he was not as well learned as the other members there. He worked to repair sandals and wash dishes and eventually found himself as a cook. This was his entire life. He took part in menial tasks and yet found a way that kept him constantly in God's presence. He wasn't striving to be something more, he was content in doing the task he was called to but being fully present to that moment.
Once Brother Lawrence so brilliantly said,
"We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed."
Where Art Thou?
So, that is my question for the church. In a world that is constantly fighting for bigger and better. In a world where the loudest and most commanding voice is the one that is heard. When you beg for a larger congregation, more "favor" more territory and influence, where are the Brother Lawrence's and Terese of Lisieux's? The encouragement, I hope, is that if you are currently engaged in a "little" enterprise, it doesn't mean that it isn't or won't be the thing that they look to, hundreds of years from now, as the thing that brings life and hope. For Brother Lawrence and for Terese of Lisieux, the people around them were instantly changed by there presence. Letters were written to leaders of monasteries and leaders of the church, that outlined this simple way as a way that would bring clarity to their lives. Doing the big thing, especially in this current culture, has its own rewards. I hope that you find that doing the small things, for such a massive God, is so much better than doing big things for who knows what. If your lot in life is support and service, God hears you and is more than pleased.
God loves dish washers, not just as dish washers but as people who have unlocked a key to his presence. God loves the elder who doesn't need his name on the newest wing of the building but is the one, when faced with the church's largest decision, that all of the elders look to for Godly wisdom. God loves the assistant pastor who is too scared to speak in public but is the one that the quietest church members call in the middle of the night for some reassurance because they too know what it is like to feel small.
Church, don't be so quick to grow big. Be willing to stay small, if that is the thing you are called to. In a world where bigger is better, there is a whole lot of people looking for a still small voice. I pray there is a faithful witness found there.