“Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (Acts 8:26)

I was thinking this morning of a road trip I took many years ago to sing at a church in Florida.  I was living in Miramar at the time, (just south of Ft Lauderdale), and traveling to sing at a church in Gulf Breeze on the Panhandle.  Most everything I did in those days was by sheer faith in the belief that I was called by God to do what I was doing.  I was poor and drove a rusted out Datsun B210, which many openly questioned as it whether it would even make it to my next destination… (pieces would fall off in people’s driveways!).  It was a 1,300 mile, 21 hour roundtrip adventure, (Florida is a very long state).  I never set a fee so I had no clue if the offering would even be enough to get me home.  I went simply because I felt God wanted me to go.

After arriving at Gulf Breeze and setting up my gear, they told me they’d like me to do two songs.  Yes, that’s right, TWO songs!  I had just driven 670 miles and spent 10 hours in my car to sing 2 songs!  (I offered to do more, but no, they just wanted the two.)  “Wow!  Lord, Did you bring me all the way over here just to sing 2 songs?”  (It’d always been my policy to do what a church asked me to do rather than my own thing, so I said, “Sure, let me pray about which ones to do.”)  But in my head I was thinking, “REALLY Lord?  TWO songs??”  Deep down it seemed a bit excessive to have me come all that way just for that.  Then a verse came to me:

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”  (Luke 2:11-14)

“Jesus came all the way from heaven to earth for me!” (a bit farther than Miramar to Gulf Breeze!)  A great company of the heavenly host came to bear witness and had just one thing to say that was recorded in the bible:

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” 

Think about it, that’s just one single sentence recorded for us before the angels went back up to heaven!  If they were singing that as a chorus, that’s one chorus… not even a whole song!  Ok, so I got to do two songs and only had to travel 1,300 miles… not bad!  Both Jesus and the angels had to travel farther than me!  Kind of puts things into perspective, huh?  So I prayed, “Lord, I only have 2 songs… please make them count!”  By this time it was obvious to me that God didn’t need quantity to accomplish his purposes.  He didn’t need an hour concert to communicate His heart.  God can do more with a very little, than I can do with an enormous effort.  One word from God is more powerful than a lifetime of words, (or songs), from me!

Now getting back to the story of Philip, on that desert road in Acts 8…

When the big thing IS the small thing

Earlier in Acts 8 you can find Philip in the city of Samaria.  He was surrounded by crowds, and miraculous signs, and people paying close attention to what he said.  It was pretty dramatic and must have been quite a sight with people healed and evil spirits coming out of some “with shrieks”!

“Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.  Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said.  With shrieks, evil spirits came out of many, and many paralytics and cripples were healed. So there was great joy in that city.” (Acts 8:4-8)

Sometimes the big thing is the small thing… because out in the desert, away from all the crowds, was a man riding in a chariot reading the book of Isaiah!  He didn’t understand what he was reading, and needed someone to make it clear, so God sent an angel to Philip to tell him to head down the desert road.  Away from the city, away from the crowds, Philip had an important job to do.  He obeyed the call to travel a desert road, and a little while later there was an Ethiopian eunuch being baptized by Philip!

Philip could have argued about how busy he was in the city and how much success he was having there, but instead he obeyed and left the big thing, to do the small thing, which turned out to be God’s thing!  My point is, it’s not the big thing (as it seems to us), or the small thing (as we perceive it), that really matters… it’s doing God’s thing that counts.  “God’s thing” will not always be clear to us or make sense to us in our own understanding.  That’s why God’s word tells us:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…”  (Proverbs 3:5)

Easy to say; harder to do… especially when the “God thing” is a small thing!  You know, my trip to Gulf Breeze, and the two songs I sang there, are long since history… but the lesson God taught me on that trip has stayed with me to this day; for me that lesson alone was worth it all.  I learned that God’s thing, is always a big thing, even when it seems like a small thing!