–To the motorcyclist on the interstate this morning, I’d like to say: “Friend, you need to understand a law of physics. The faster you go, the smaller you become and the more invisible you appear to the other motorists.”

People who ride these killer machines — and some are dear friends and brothers in the ministry — do so for the freedom, the exhilaration of the fresh air and the open road, and yes, let’s admit it, the sensation of speed. Nothing has the pick-up of a Harley on a highway. That’s what makes them doubly dangerous.

In the first place, other drivers don’t see you as a matter of routine. They’re watching for other cars and trucks, not for a bicycle-on-steroids, and that’s why even good and faithful motorists have sometimes inadvertently pulled into the path of an oncoming motorcycle. Secondly, if you increase your speed to something horrendous — this morning, the traffic was moving at 65 to 70 mph and the motorcycle had to have been doing 90 — I can almost guarantee you that no motorist will notice you until you are on top of them. That’s why every week in this city — every blessed week! — we have people killed on motorcycles.

–to the pastor who has lost his vision for his community, I’d like to say: “Dear brother, either resign or ask God to give you a new vision for the people inside and around your church.”

Woody Sears pastors the Cammack United Methodist Church in rural Indiana. Recently, he mentioned something intriguing in a comment at the end of one of our articles about a community ministry of his men. I asked for details. Here is Woody’s report….

“Several years ago we started a men’s group. One of the activities was to go out one morning a week into the village of Cammack. During the warmer times of the year we literally walk the streets of Cammack. If you look at a map of Cammack on google, you will see that it is not a huge town. I think there are four streets going east to west and six going north to south. If somebody needs something done they can contact the church and a small group of us would go over and do it. Not real big projects, but things like paint a shed, wash windows. Most of our residents are elderly. I’m over 66 years of age and they call me Junior! If no one has called and reserved us, we will literally walk the streets and talk to people who are out. Sometimes we sit and watch the kids skateboard. Last summer we took on three kids in a basketball game and the losers had to sit in the front row next Sunday at church. That’s a pretty good bet since none of the boys came to church. The next Sunday we had to sit on the front row, and God bless ’em, the boys came to make sure we did. One man needed his wheel chair repaired. We’ve picked flowers for people, planted gardens, gone into the city to get prescriptions, prayed for grandsons in Iraq, served as a contact for larger jobs that needed a contractor—you name it and I think we’ve done it.”

Woody ends with this: “The woman’s organization jokingly called us ‘The Streetwalkers’ and it stuck. It has served as an excellent recruiting tool for the stay-at-home husbands. It has worked so well that we no longer have any stay-at-home spouses. Everyone that has a spouse, both are in church. We’re not a big church but Cammack is not a big village. We strongly encourage walk-ins, limp-ins, wheel-ins, or any way the local residents need to get to church. Shortly after we came, we held a prayer meeting to pray for the church here and God has been faithful.”

–to the discouraged believer who used to be faithful in church and is now pulling back, I’d like to say: “Wake up. Get your head out of the sand — or out of the television (Oprah is killing you!) or out of the kind of books you’ve been reading (authors who resent preachers evangelizing do their own proselyting by peppering their writings with their own unbelief and doubts).

If you no longer have an appetite for spiritual things such as prayer, worship, and Bible reading, but you did at one time, I suggest you take a good look at what has happened. Chances are you have weaned yourself off a diet of healthy nutrition and started filling your soul with the junk food of this life. No one existing on a regimen of french fries and soft drinks has a taste for broccoli and green beans. Stop the junk food first. Just cut it out. Turn off the television or even give it away. Clean out that reading material. Take control of your soul-input.

Then, the next time you find yourself dissatisfied and you start wondering what to read or what to do, take that as a cry from your soul for proper nourishment. Get a place in your house, somewhere other than in front of the television, for pete’s sake, and place a Bible there. Let that be your regular spot. Turn to some New Testament book, at the first chapter, and start reading. If you have trouble concentrating, read it aloud.

Why start with the Bible? Because “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). That’s the starting place to rebuild one’s faith.

Then, start talking with the Lord. And get back in church.

Now, stay with the regimen. Remember that it takes time to create a new habit and time to break old ones. Be patient with yourself, but be tough with yourself also. The lazy self-indulgent spirit will not give up his domain without a fight.

–And to the one who is impatient about the lack of spiritual growth in his life, I’d like to say: “It’s all about doing the small things, friend.”

We live in a culture that applauds bigness and speed and visible success. Speakers boast of the crowds in their audience, teams report the championships they won, businesses and governments deal in the billions of dollars, impressive cars now cost what homes did one generation ago, and churches now run in attendance what entire denominations used to number. You can fly from New Orleans to Mexico City in just over two hours and furthermore, you can afford to do so.

It’s easy to be impatient with yourself and with God. Why am I not getting better faster?

A defining scripture for me has become the question the Lord raises in Zechariah 4:10, “Who has despised the day of small things?”

God was speaking of the day when the temple would be rebuilt, but on a smaller scale, in a renovated Jerusalem. None of it would impress those familiar with Babylon’s excess or Egypt’s grandeur. Furthermore, God clearly had in mind the day the Messiah would arrive on earth to begin His brief, history-altering ministry.

His would be a work of small things: a baby in a feed trough in tiny Bethlehem, young poor parents from a small town in Galilee, a three year peripatetic ministry in one of the least significant of nations populated by Jews. A cross, a tomb, a gospel. The outside world hardly took note.

“God chose the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.” (I Corinthians 1:27)

What could be smaller than a child opening his heart to Jesus and praying for forgiveness and the Lord to enter? What could be less impressive than a man stepping forward in your church Sunday at the invitation time to commit his life to Christ? What is less significant to the world than the woman who is baptized this weekend? The world will not send the television cameras or reporters with their notebooks.

And yet….

The mustard seed is the least of all the seeds, Jesus said, but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a “tree,” so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. (Palestinian mustard plants, we’re told, are large shrubs, some growing to 15 feet.) Jesus said, “The kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed.”

Small, insignificant, unimpressive. But alive and powerful in its eventual outcome.

So, do the small things, Christian. Plant yourself in church Sunday. Talk to the Lord. Put your offering in the plate. Hug a hurting friend. Give a warm greeting to a newcomer. Slip the pastor a ten dollar bill on the side. Take that new family to lunch at the cafeteria after church. Hug that senior adult lady who is all alone now. Open your Bible and read along with the pastor and listen for the voice of God.

Take a walk down the street. Speak to your neighbors. Look for someone who needs you.

“Whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water…I assure you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:42)

Do not despise small things. “He who is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.” (Luke 16:10)

–And to you who read this blog faithfully and tell me occasionally that God uses it in your life and ministry, I’d like to say: “Thank you. You are encouragers! Happy Easter!”