Faithful in Little, Faithful in Much

Photo by Holly Mindrup on Unsplash

Sometimes I forget how difficult writing is. I’m not saying that I forget that it’s hard for other people because it’s a breeze for me. I mean that sometimes I sit down to write and realize that what I want to write is more work than I previously anticipated.

Yesterday I wrote my first poem in four months. It was hard to make the words come. But I did it. And you can too.

My boss likes to quote a football player who says, “Greatness is a lot of small things done well…day after day, after day, after day.”

Writing is hard. It’s like exercise, and you’ve got to build up the ability to do it. But stockpiling that strength doesn’t only come from writing 300 words one day and 500 the next. That helps, but it’s not the only way.

I’m a bit of a military junky but bear with me a moment.

Soldiers in training don’t just exercise and learn how to operate weapons. They learn to build discipline in every aspect of their life and to take pride in the small things. They learn to accomplish menial tasks. They learn to do small things first and gradually work up to doing the hard things. They have a foundation.

Retired U.S. Navy Admiral William H. McRaven describes this beautifully in his small, but powerful book, Make Your Bed. The subtitle of the book is: little things that can change your life…and maybe the world. That book is one of those “little things that can change your life…and maybe the world,” and I urge you to read it.

McRaven was a Navy Seal, one of the toughest people of the United States military, yet he learned to take pride in the simple task of making his bed every day. If his day went rotten, he could come back to a tidy bed at night, a task completed, a job well done. He was humble enough to see the accomplishment in the job.

I’ve made my own bed nearly every day since reading his book last month.

You can build the stamina for writing too. By accomplishing small tasks throughout the day, you’ll have laid a foundation on which to build the harder things. Make your bed. Do the dishes. Vacuum the living room. Write.

By completing other jobs, it builds a sense inside that because you did those tasks, you can do something else too.

We see it in the life of Louis “Louie” Zamperini, the Italian-American Olympian and WWII bombardier. When he was young, his older brother, Pete, pushed him to run, run, and keep running. He urged his little brother to become good enough to race in the Olympic Games. He persuaded him to endure. He pressed him to prevail…in small things.

After Louie raced, he joined the U.S. Air Force, went down in the ocean in a plane crash during a search mission, survived 47 days in a lifeboat, was captured by the Japanese, and endured a couple of years under heartbreaking conditions as a prisoner of war. Zamperini’s accomplishment didn’t end with freedom from the camp. Later in life he trusted in Jesus Christ as his Savior and forgave his captors, including one man who tortured him horrifically.

If it weren’t for Pete, Louie may have well given up on the lifeboat or in the Japanese prison camps. He may have surrendered to temptations from his captors. But he persevered, and Louie Zamperini rose to become an American hero of World War II. Zamperini was great. But he was consistent in little things first: running, running, running.

Jesus said, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.” Luke 16:10. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

It’s not easy and I fail a lot. I procrastinate grossly. But the small things are the start.

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What small thing can you do, day after day, to build your writing endurance?

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Remember your veterans this Sunday, November 11.