The Trivial And The Tremendous

On April 18, 1906 San Francisco went through the worst catastrophe of California

history. An earthquake devastated the city, and a fire broke out that left that once

thriving metropolis a heap of smoldering ruins. The cost in lives and property was

beyond calculation. Yet, in the midst of all this destruction and death people were

preoccupied with the trivia of life. A mortician sat on the front steps of his office and

polished coffin handles, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. You want to get angry at

this man for giving himself to trifles in the midst of such a major disaster, but the

question is, if the handles needed polishing, why not do it? It is a trivial task, but coffins

would be needed, and people would demand that they be clean and shiny. The trivial

cannot be evaded or avoided, for it is a perpetual part of life.

It is a crazy world where you cannot get life set up like a furniture store. All of the

chairs in one place, and all of the beds in another, and the lamps and dressers in still

another. And all the nuts and bolts and plastic and packing materials are isolated out of

sight so as not to detract from the beauty. In life all of this stuff is mixed together with

the trivial and the tremendous in the same room. No matter what tragedies people go

through, they still have to pay the light bill, dust the end tables, put twisties back on the

bread, and dozens of other trivial duties to maintain order. The trivial is inseparable

from the tremendous in every day life. We sometimes feel guilty about it if we go on

doing trivial things when there is a tremendous crisis going on. You are not always

involved in what is a major issue, but you are always involved in what is minor, and so the

trivial is a perpetual part of all of our lives. You get rest from the tremendous, but the

trivial is ever with you. Gamaliel Bradford wrote-

I think about God, yet I talk of small matters.

Now isn't it odd how my idle tongue chatters,

Of quarrelsome neighbors,

Fine weather and rain,

Indifferent labors,

Indifferent pain.

Some trivial style,

Fashion shifts with a nod

And yet all the while

I am thinking of God.

What Jesus is saying to us in this paragraph is that we must take the trivial seriously,

for how we deal with a value, even the least of God's commands, will determine our status

in the kingdom of heaven. In other words, the trivial can be tremendous. Jesus goes so

far as to say, not a jot or tittle is insignificant. Not the smallest letter, or the least stroke

of the pen is really trivial. In our system, not the dotting of an i, or the crossing of a t, is

so trivial that God will neglect it, or ignore it in His plan. Every detail of value, however

trivial, will be fulfilled, therefore, nothing of God's law and revelation is so trivial that we

can ignore it without loss. The silly poet wrote-

One day I sat upon a chair,

Of course the bottom wasn't there;

Nor legs, nor back, but I just sat,

Ignoring little things like that.

But little though they be, you cannot ignore them and prevent a fall, and so it is with the

least of God's laws. Jesus says, if you want to be a nobody in the kingdom, just ignore the

trivial, and violate its purpose, and teach others the same, and you've got it. But if you want to be

somebody in the kingdom, you have got to see the trivial can be tremendous. One of the

major problems of Christians all through history is the promoting of their own gifts and

activities to the detriment of others. The hand says to the foot, I have no need of you.

The Christian in evangelism says, the Christian in social service is wasting his time.

What good is a cup of cold water if a man is going to hell? The social service Christian

says, what good is the Gospel to a man who is starving and thirsty? Christians fight each

other saying, I am the greatest. Jesus says, not so, for they are both least in the kingdom

if they teach that the least commandment is unimportant. The greatest are those who

know obedience to all of God's will is important, and they teach and do it, for the trivial

cup of cold water, and the tremendous message of the cross are both part of God's plan.

We get an insight here into the way God works. God is into the big, for He created the

whole vast universe, but the fact is, He built all the bigness of creation out of the small.