He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’ And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’ (Luke 13:18-21)

When Jesus illustrates the Kingdom of God, he does not use regal images of lavish thrones, glittering crowns, ornate palaces, and invincible armies – images normally associated with royalty and kingdom-making. Instead, he describes the kingdom using small, simple items from first-century village life.

On Planting and Baking

In the two short parables before us, Jesus illustrates the kingdom using two common experiences of planting seed and baking bread.[1]

Like seed, the kingdom is present in a tiny, insignificant form, but will one day – like a tree – be great and embrace the nations of the earth (represented by the “birds of the air”). The contrast is between the beginning and the end. The beginning is small. The end is glorious.

Like leaven, the kingdom is a very small force that permeates the world and produces effects greatly beyond what one might expect.[2] Though the present form of the kingdom is hardly perceptible, it will eventually pervade the entire world.

The similarity in the two stories is that both involve common people who “perform small acts that have expansive consequences.”[3] Two contrasts are highlighted: (1) the contrast of small beginnings and powerful results, and (2) the contrast between the hidden and the manifest.

The Power of Small Things

The parables challenge us to never underestimate the power of small things. The power of God may be hidden in – and thus, unleashed by – the smallest act. This has widespread practical significance.

We all aspire to be spiritual giants – people of deep faith, steadfast hope, and great love. But these virtues are not instantly achieved. They take time to develop. Though God is able to use the slightest amount of faith (“the size of mustard seed”),[4] the slimmest hope (“hope against hope”),[5] and the smallest act of love (“cup of cold water”),[6] God’s desire is that we would grow to deep expressions of these virtues. The seeds for this growth are contained in our small acts of faith, hope, and love.

Authentic spiritual transformation is slow, incremental, organic, and cumulative. Like human growth – from baby to toddler, young child, adolescent, young adult, middle age, and senior – spiritual growth advances by small steps over a long time. Each step builds upon the previous step. We may speed up the process a bit through various experiences but we cannot negate any step along the way.[7]

The Kaizen Way

Recognizing that all authentic growth is incremental, organic, and cumulative provides helpful insights for intentional spiritual transformation. It adjusts our expectations away from big innovations and toward progressive small steps. The importance of small steps is greatly increased in this model.

Even business leaders are beginning to see the value of small things. Kaizen is a Japanese strategy for constant small improvements. It incorporates the wisdom that small changes can bring big effects. It is a commitment to “getting better all the time” – a little at a time.

Everything can use a little improvement. In order not to stagnate or drift backwards, the “kaizen way” calls us to continually remain attentive to positive, small acts that may result in big change over time.

Psychologically, kaizen works because the “low-key change helps the human mind circumnavigate the fear that blocks success and creativity.”[8] For most people “big goals trigger big fear.”[9] This is the wisdom of kaizen: “Small actions trick the brain into thinking: Hey, this change is so tiny that it's no big deal. No need to get worked up. No risk of failure or unhappiness here. By outfoxing the fear response, small actions allow the brain to build up new, permanent habits.”[10]

Small Spiritual Steps

Small acts result in big change over time. This includes spiritual formation. Instead of tackling huge commitments in order to effect drastic changes, we would do well to start small. Over time, the small steps will add up and lead to a great end.

For example, many people would like to read the entire Bible. This is a good goal to have. But the Bible is an intimidating book. It is ancient, large, and the content is often confusing. This big goal triggers big fear. It is easy to fail with such a big goal. But what if you started with smaller goals? A commitment to read one proverb a day (which would take seconds) would be a good start. Once this becomes a habit, you can then advance to one psalm a day, or one paragraph a day. Eventually, this may add up to a chapter a day, or even a book. Who knows?

The same thing applies to those who have trouble praying regularly. What if you committed to saying the Lord’s Prayer out loud once a day? It would take you all of thirty seconds, but this small act would begin to build the habit of daily prayer into your life. Plus, the longer you reflect on the content of the prayer, the more meaningful it becomes. It daily calls you to speak to God intimately as your perfect parent (“Our Father”), to relish God’s otherness (“Hallowed by Thy name”), to seek first God’s kingdom and will (“Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”), to depend on God for your basic needs (“Give us this day our daily bread”), to show and receive mercy for daily shortcomings (“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors”), to watch out for temptation (“Lead us not into temptation”), and to give all glory to God (“For Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory”). Once you are in the pattern of praying the Lord’s Prayer, you can begin to personalize its features. You may wish to add one request, or give thanks for a blessing, or seek help with one particular temptation, and so forth. Little by little you can build up a prayer life that is rich and full. But, in order to get there, you must start somewhere – and the Lord’s Prayer, as simple and small as it is, is a rich and full place to start!

The power of small acts can also improve our relationships. Our desire to express perfect love, giving, and service to others sets us up to fail. Who can truly live up to the flawless pattern Jesus provides? But, what if, instead of establishing a big goal, we pursued a more modest goal? What if we decided to love just a little bit more than we expect to be loved in return? To give just a little bit more than we expect to receive? To serve just a little bit more than we expect to be served? What if we simply tried to love, give, and serve – not perfectly – but just a little bit more, each day?

Perhaps what our relationships need is not a major overhaul (although some certainly do!) but a tune-up. According to Dr. John Gottman, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, the difference between a happily and miserable marriage depends upon the presence of a few small actions of positive attention. A study conducted among volunteer couples in a special condominium set up as a laboratory for observing behavior provided the following insights:

One of the study’s major findings was that in the successful relationship, positive attention outweighed negative on a daily basis by a factor of five to one. This positive attention wasn’t about dramatic actions like throwing over-the-top birthday parties or purchasing a dream home. It took the form of small gestures, such as

• using a pleased tone of voice when receiving a phone call from the partner, as opposed to an exasperated tone or a rushed pace that implied the partner’s call was interrupting important tasks

• inquiring about dentist appointments of other details of the other person’s day

• putting down the remote control, newspaper, or telephone when the other partner walked through the door

• arriving home at the promised time – or at least calling if there was a delay

These small moments turned out to be more predictive of a loving, trusting relationship than were the more innovative steps of romantic vacations and expensive presents. Possibly, that’s because small moments provide consistent tending and nurturing.[11]

Humility and “The Little Way”

A commitment to small things demands humility and patience. Humility keeps us from thinking too highly of ourselves. Patience allows us to endure the long and painful process of spiritual formation. These two qualities are embodied in the life and teaching of one of my favorite saints: Therese of Lisieux.

Therese describes her spirituality as “The Little Way.” When we recognize our “littleness” in the sight of God, we more easily trust and take comfort in God’s provision: “When we keep little we recognize our own nothingness, and expect everything from God just as a little child expects everything from its father. Nothing worries us.”

Instead of aspiring to “great deeds,” Therese recommends doing small deeds with great love. To her, these “little deeds of great love” are “little flowers” that demonstrate tender affection to God. She writes,

“How shall I prove my love, since love must prove itself by deeds? I, the little one, will strew flowers… I will let no little sacrifice escape me, not a look, not a word. I will make use of the smallest actions and do them all for love… There is only one thing to do here below, namely to offer Our Lord the flowers of little sacrifices, to win Him by our caresses.”

She told her friend, Celine, “Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.” Almost 300 years earlier, Brother Lawrence said something similar, “The littleness of the work does not lessen one bit the value of the offering, for God does not consider the greatness of the work, but the love that motivates doing it.”

A tender smile, a kind word, an encouraging gesture – these small things can give new life and fresh faith to others. When we are not anxious about personal greatness, we can rest in our littleness. Like little children, our attention to the small details keeps us “in the moment” – entirely present to ourselves, others, and God, and thus, entirely able to act in love. This is exactly how Jesus encouraged us to live: “Do not be worried about tomorrow. Today has enough troubles of its own. So, seek first God’s kingdom!” In other words, “Live in the present moment, and make this small moment a moment of divine love by seeking first God’s kingdom. And, don’t assume that this means ‘big’ things! Great things, yes; but big things, not necessarily.”

Patience in the Process

God is patient with us, and we should be patient with ourselves. God waited patiently as we grew from babies to toddlers to children to adolescents to young adults and beyond. God does not demand that we act beyond our abilities. God realizes (because God has made a world in which this is explicit) that growth is progressive – slow, organic, incremental, and cumulative. No one act defines us, yet every act in some way shapes us.

Even more importantly, every act – no matter how “small” – is an agent of God’s kingdom. Our small acts are the seed and yeast of the kingdom. When we search for great signs of God’s activity in our world, we often forget the clear signs that are in our midst. In Jesus’ day, the people expected the Kingdom of God to consist of mighty military commanders, invincible armies, and power-wielding authorities. They did not expect God’s kingdom to break in through the simple liberation of the marginalized, the weak, and the oppressed.

This is the way Jesus’ two short parables connect with the previous passage concerning the healing of the crippled woman. The “therefore” (Luke 13:18) at the beginning of the parables invites us to tie the parables as commentary to the previous story. The healing of the crippled woman may seem insignificant in light of people’s expectations of the kingdom, but it was a significant victory of the kingdom. Craddock puts it like this,

A woman bound by Satan has just been loosed; not a major, earth-shaking event, but in that single act is the beginning of the reign of God in the world and the beginning of the end of Satan’s destructive power. Do not therefore be discouraged over what seems to be a lack of success. God is at work; just as seed and leaven carry their futures within them.[12]

When we focus on big events rather than the small acts, we lose patience with the small and assume we have more important things to do with our time than focus on little things. We lose sight of the fact that people – individual people – are important to God. At times, our own sense of self-importance can deceive us into thinking that our potential to influence others is far greater than it truly is. Mike Mason, in explaining God’s purpose in marriage, hits us over the head with this truth: “What offends us is the terrible waste of marriage, the waste of our precious lives being poured out over just one other person. We would like to think of ourselves, perhaps, as having a great impact on the world, touching and influencing thousands of lives. How great is our frustration when we realize that we do not adequately touch even the one single life of the person closest to us!”[13] In other words, we have a hard enough time loving one person – much less, ten, twenty, or twenty thousand!

Authentic spiritual transformation occurs as the Kingdom of God personally encounters individuals through transformed kingdom-bearers. The change occurs one person at a time. We must never forget the importance of personal relationships in spiritual transformation – and the privilege of being a change agent for even one person! An old story makes this point well:

It was early morning. On the beach was an elderly man. He walked with a cane, carefully surveying the beach that the receding tide had left exposed.  Every now and then he bent to pick something up and toss it into the ocean. I watched with fascination as he carefully scanned the beach before him. It was then that I realized he was looking for starfish. Every time he saw one lying helpless in the sand, unable to get back to the ocean on his own, he would lovingly pick it up and toss it gently back into the sea... Curious as to why he was doing this, I approached him. He told me, “The starfish are left behind after the tide goes out. If they don't get back into the ocean they will dry up and die beneath the hot summer sun.”

“But there are endless miles of beach and there must be millions of starfish,” I said. “Surely you don't think you can save them all. What difference can your efforts possibly make?” Slowly the old man bent over and picked up another starfish. As he tossed it into ocean he looked at me and said, “It makes a difference to that one.”

Conclusion

Small acts result in big change over time. Mother Teresa is right, “To God, there is nothing small.” All acts contain the seed of the future and will affect lives far beyond this time and place. This gives us patience, hope, and a humble sense of accomplishment.

What would a world look like that embraced the “little way”? Using the language of the Kaizen way, Maurer presents us with an attractive vision of a possible future if we would all embrace the power of small things. He invites us to

consider how the world might be different if more of us conducted our social, business, and romantic lives with the belief that small steps matter, that even the shortest contact with another person is inherently important. Kaizen offers the possibility that through small acts of kindness, and even small moments of compassion and curiosity, we can change ourselves – and, eventually, humanity.[14]

Perhaps this is what Jesus was getting at when he called us to be “faithful in little things.” Our fascination with big things blinds us to the power of little things. Jesus was not seduced by this. He understood that it is impossible to be faithful in big things without attention to the small things: “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much” (Luke 16:10).

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© Richard J. Vincent, 2006