I recently read a quote by Shannan Martin, who is easily one of my favorite author’s/bloggers. She speaks truth from a position of experience and wrestling and vulnerability, and I so appreciate that about her.
The quote reads,
“Living small is not about having less, but being less– less respected in the eyes of the world, less successful, less wealthy, less esteemed, less you. Less me. And more Jesus. Here, in this abundance of less, where more of us is stripped away, we’ll uncover the person we were made to be, the one created in the image of a God who sank holy feet in to our human mess.”
Living small. Two words we don’t often talk about in our neck of the woods. The part of the woods filled with Facebook and Snapchat and self promotion and filters and abundance. We just don’t think small. And these words aren’t mean to limit us or keep us from pursuing our dreams or goals. They don’t point to our worth or our value, for we are THE MOST valued of all creation. They aren’t meant to diminish us, but to remind us of our position on this earth. We are the created ones, not the other way around.
Living small, in a world that lives big and large, is counter-intuitive. It’s not in our nature to live this way, or to rest our minds in this space of small, especially when bigger and better are staring us square in the eye. But to me, living small means letting God stay big. It keeps Him in the center of the picture. It doesn’t mean, as Shannan said, that we give everything away or that we see ourselves as having no value, but rather seeing our great value in light of the King, the creator, the Jesus who came to earth and sank His feet here in this dirt and walked in our shoes. The one who lived and died and was raised and walked again and ascended to His throne. He is the one who deserves our focus, our love, our adoration, our praise, and our WHOLE HEARTS.
Our eyes shift their focus from self to Savior.
This past year was a hard one for me, and still, there are hard moments and hard days. Dealing with loss and parenting a teen and schedules and job changes and health challenges and all the things. I know I’m not alone. I’m sure you’ve had those seasons, or maybe it feels you’re in a perpetual season of struggle. I get that.
I had to step back a bit. I had to retreat as I worked through my stuff. God used this sort of weird unknown space that I’ve been floating around in to teach me that stepping back, even for the purposes of working through loss, is really freeing. I said no, a lot. I tried to save my yes’ for the things I was confident in and knew were meant for me to do, and I let the rest go.
And it reminded me that life is not about how much we can do. It’s not about how good we appear to others or how much we can acquire or how much recognition we receive. It’s about the real and the raw and the very human moments. The struggle and the growth and perspective that comes when we hurt. In this wrestling space we dig down deep into what really matters. And we can still experience great joy.
It means Jesus is big friends. And that is exhilarating.
We can’t live as the big center picture and still expect Jesus to be the star of the show. When we decrease, He increases. This we know. So, living small means we remember whom we serve, who we belong to and what our mission is while we are blessed with breath in our lungs. It’s to make much of Him. To make Him known. To be less so He can be more, because when we become less and He becomes more, big things happen in us. We become this bright flame, not to be scorched or put out. We love well. We see people and we see hurts and God uses our stories to shine brightness into a dark world. We become beacons for the creator of the universe. How amazing is that? Isn’t that so much better than being beacons for our own humanness?
I don’t know about you, but I’m one hell of a hot mess, sure to tip things upside down on the reg. But God? No. He is rock solid and secure and on his throne. He is worthy of our absolute everything. He is the supreme King of Glory, and I would rather my life count to make much of Him than myself, and this only happens when my vision and my heart and my intentions are vertical.
Yes, this. Remembering this week where my place is. Dependent on Jesus, not myself. Staying a little lower so He can be lifted up and THE visible thing about my life. This is especially hard to do in a “look at me” culture, but we must bow low. Here, on our knees and in our humble place before the King, is where He makes the most beautiful things of us. He shines brighter as we sink back and watch Him do His work, and in turn, we get more of Him and an entirely new perspective. And this, this is worth far more than diamonds and gold.
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