Someone asks what you have been doing, and the word only arrives before the answer.
Only the usual things. Only a visit. Only a few hours of work. You can name what filled the day, but it does not sound large enough beside the news someone else has brought. A promotion. A journey. A project with a name.
You need not begrudge their joy to wonder quietly about your own life. Perhaps it once held a more visible place. Perhaps it never did. What troubles you is the thought that a life must become impressive before it can matter to God.
In Matthew 13, Jesus gives the gathered crowd pictures of God's kingdom. He speaks about fields and seed, and then about a woman working with meal. The stories begin close to the ground and inside a household.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took, and sowed in his field, which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.
Matthew 13:31-32, WEB
The story moves from a small seed to branches where birds can lodge. Jesus is not offering a lesson in how to make ourselves prominent. The life that grows has room for others.
Then he gives another picture:
The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.
Matthew 13:33, WEB
The yeast is hidden. Once it is worked into the meal, it does not remain a separate, visible thing that someone can point to. Yet the story ends with the whole batch leavened. Three measures is a generous quantity, not merely a handful. What is out of sight is not without consequence.
The woman's work carries an image of God's reign. She is not merely watching while someone else does what matters. But this does not assign every woman a kitchen or tell her to remain unseen. One ordinary role has not become everyone's calling.
Both stories hold more than praise for little things. The seed grows; the yeast reaches the whole batch. Jesus is speaking of God's kingdom, whose reach is greater than its first appearance suggests. He gives hope beyond what can presently be seen.
That hope is not a contract for each small undertaking. A kindness may remain known to two people. A little congregation may remain little. The kingdom's future is not a prediction about our own results.
If a quiet life matters only because it will later become a large one, we have kept the old measure. We have merely postponed the day when it must prove itself.
Jesus' images let us question that measure now. God's reign is not limited to what looks powerful or deserves an announcement. Faithfulness need not wait for a larger audience before it can begin.
This is not a reason to call every small thing good. Elsewhere in this same chapter, Jesus speaks of seeds that do not take root, weeds among wheat, and judgment. His stories take evil and the way we respond seriously. The invitation is not to do nothing, but to stop confusing the size of a life with the truth of its response to God.
Nor is hiddenness a virtue that other people may impose on you. Work deserves fair acknowledgment. A person's needs deserve attention. You may speak, seek a wider place to use your gifts, or ask to be heard. You do not become less faithful by being noticed, any more than you become less faithful because your life has a small public reach.
There may be a truth you told without applause, a kindness you received without earning it, or someone whose company you kept. These are not all of life, and they do not solve everything. They need not solve everything to be real.
You can belong to God's work without being able to display its whole future. The kingdom is larger than your account of what this day achieved.
Leave Off The Word Only
If one ordinary good comes to mind, consider naming it without only or just. A kindness given or received. An honest answer. A welcome offered or accepted.
Let the sentence stand without adding a forecast of what it will become. You do not need to turn it into another task or a story about your importance. If nothing comes to mind, there is no need to search the day for evidence that you deserve to belong.
This is one way to question the measure, not another measure to meet.
Prayer
God whose kingdom Jesus pictured in seed and hidden yeast, teach me not to despise what does not look impressive. Keep me attentive to what is true and loving, rather than hungry for proof that my life will become large. Help us notice people whose needs and work go unacknowledged. Make room among us for gifts that are public and gifts that are quiet. Hold what I cannot yet see, and let me live this day without pretending to know its whole future. Amen.
Reflect
What changes when an ordinary good does not have to become something larger to be worth naming?
Continue
Related: Who Are You When the Role Changes?
Related: God Is Present in Ordinary Work
Related: When Your Role Changes: Identity Beyond Work, Caregiving, and Productivity
Return: Devotionals
Scripture: Matthew 13:31-33, World English Bible.
Written by: Ruth Caldwell
Scope: This devotional offers Christian spiritual support and education. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, therapy, or crisis services.