I’m determined, this time. I was determined last time, too. But this time, I’m really determined. I have a new eating and lifestyle plan that I am committed to following, not for a few months or a year or two, but for the rest of my life. I’ve got a specific weight loss goal, some goals for other projects I want to accomplish, and a specific focus on growth in my walk with God that I’m determined to make happen. But to be successful, I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ll have to make peace with one, very important word: The word ‘small.’

Anyone who’s ever been on any kind of diet knows that losing weight isn’t really rocket science. As human beings, we need calories and food to sustain us. We all burn calories as we go about our daily lives. I checked, and someone my age and my exercise level will need about 2000 calories a day to maintain their weight. In order for me to lose any weight, therefore, I’ll have to consume fewer calories than I burn. If I eat morecalories than I burn, I’ll gain weight. That’s no mystery.

But here’s what I’ve discovered in my new eating and lifestyle plan: I’ve got to pay better attention to the ‘small’ things, in order to make progress on the ‘big’ things in my life. If I eat just 96 calories more every day than I burn, in one year I will gain 10 pounds. If I eat one small cookie the size of an Oreo, or 1/4th of a medium plain donut, or one small chicken wing in addition to my 2000 calories every day … in a year, I’ll have gained 10 pounds.

I’ve known in my head for a long time that the small things I do every day end up contributing to a lifestyle that has serious consequences.

For example, they say the average reading speed for an adult in America is about 200 words a minute. If an individual spends just 3 minutes a day — every day — in one year, they will have read the entire New Testament. And if an individual spent approximately 2:25 minutes every day, reading the Psalms? In one year they will have read the entire book of Psalms … FOUR times! 

I have to make peace with that one, very important word: Small. I’ve got to pay better attention to the ‘small’ things happening in my life or perhaps ‘missing’ from my life every day, in order to make progress on some of the ‘big’ things I want to see become realities in my life. Small things are so often very significant in Kingdom living, ever notice?

It was a small, smooth stone in a sling that brought down Goliath. A small, brown-bag lunch that fed 5000 people. And in I Kings 18, one small cloud the size of a man’s hand turned into a frog-stranglin‘ rain. There’s no question: Great growth and change — great outcomes in our lives — often come in small packages, small increments, even small efforts.

When small things are offered to God, amazing things happen. Have you noticed? And, of course, with God? Everything is small. That’s why I need Jesus.