Why do it?

Well, today was rather productive. I did some studying for two tests, one of them was by filling out a study guide and going back over older material. The other was by looking over notes from the past few weeks. I went to church this morning and the message was encouraging because it was a topic that I had posted about on Nov. 4 and it allowed me to compare the ideas that I took from the passage with the senior pastor of my church. Never in my lifetime would I have guessed that I would find a passage I had never heard before and meditate on it and then a few months later hear a pastor speak a message on that same passage. It showed me the greatness of God and how he continues to amaze me even when I am struggling. I feel like I am making him struggle for my attention sometimes and he is digging all around me to try and show me that everything I have experienced since October has been real and there are changes taking place inside and around me. I can grasp the idea of faith and I know what it means to have it but sometimes I still find it hard to work towards a goal that seems so far off. Then again I know what that is like and I never thought I would be the starting varsity shortstop for my high school team. I never thought I would put up numbers like I did in my senior year. I never thought that the first home run would ever come. My freshman and sophomore years I was a benchwarmer and told I was never good enough but I showed up to practice everyday and worked on the little things and gave 100%. My junior and senior years I was a starter (at a different school) and all my hard work paid off. I do not know how many times I came home those first 2 years and was ready to give up baseball, but I stuck with it and I found out that the benefits were worth the long hours and all the time of no reward. In the same way, I see that even though I do not always see the benefits right away, God will provide and reward me for my faithfulness and for my work in his name. It just takes some reminding every once in awhile.

We see a good example of this in Matthew 25 when the servant with the talents invested his talents and doubled what he invested. Verse 21 shows how happy his master was with him and we see this, "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master's happiness!' " You see, God wants us to take the gifts he gives us and utilize them. Then we can come back to him and say look what I have done with what you provided for me and how I have blessed others because of how you have blessed me.  God wants us to take care of the small things and that will take care of the bigger things. Through the years my coaches have said we need to focus on the little things and the big things will come as a result of taking care of the little things. See the little things are what the big things are comprised of so completing the small tasks really helps us with taking down the big tasks. We think that we need to cover the big picture but the small tasks were designed for a reason. We learn from doing the little things and then we can move towards the big goal. For example it is impossible to reach the World Series unless you win enough single games to get into the playoffs. It is impossible to win a game unless you focus on every inning and every pitch. You have to score at least 1 run in order to win the game as well. Some people might make the case that one cannot win a World Series in Spring Training. The truth is that you cannot actually win the World Series in training camp because the whole season is ahead, but the preparation, focus, and the small things in camp eventually leads to a World Series. In the same way, we cannot change the world for Christ in one night. We have to work on building a core and make sure that we stand firm and then reach a few, by reaching those few, we build confidence and our lifestyle reflects what we talk about everyday and people start to see the change. In the end, people become interested in what is going on in you and they want to know more and that is when we have the opportunity to affect at least a group of people if not a whole campus (depending on size). God has given us simple instructions to follow him and when we learn to do that then he increases the work load and starts to use us more but we must master the little things before we can grow.

The next time you think you are doing something that is pointless (I feel like that all the time), just remember that there is a purpose and it will more than likely make you a better person. If nobody did the little things then there would be no big things to do so just remember that it has to be done. It is not about the size of the project but it is about what you do with the project whatever the difficulty or size.

I hope you all had a good Sunday and are ready for another week. I know Monday's are rather dreaded but it is okay. I am praying for all of you and continue to remember me if possible.

God Bless,

Joseph Robinson