The Little Things

I was on a run, day number 4 of our 7 day march around ShadowLake on The Lost Ferret Hunt, when I saw a cat chasing a tiny creature across the street. It wasn't the ferret, too small, but I decided if I wasn't being sent to save the ferret, maybe I was being sent to save whatever little thing the cat was batting. I ran up calling, "Kitty! Kitty! Stop Kitty!" The cat ignored me till I was upon it, bent upon tormenting its prey. The prey was a little chipmunk.
"Hey cat!" I screamed, "Leave him alone!"
The cat glared at me, but then ran and leaped over a fence and was gone. The chipmunk huddled and looked at me, drawing in deep breaths. He appeared to be unscathed.
He hurried into some deep grass, and then stopped, watching me.
"Rest up," I said softly, "I don't think the cat will be back anytime soon, but you ought to hide as soon as you catch your breath."
I turned to continue on my run, and noticed a man on a porch across the street watching me. He had seen the whole drama. I wondered why he hadn't bothered to try and save the chipmunk.

And as I ran, I thought about how I had believed my mission was to find our friend's ferret, but maybe that wasn't what God had in mind. Maybe that grand and noble and glorious intention was only my dream. Could God have urged me on this run, on this very street, for the small and inconspicuous act of scaring a cat off a little chipmunk?
I believe we all are called to a purpose, and the more intently we listen for the Call, the more clearly we understand that He is always calling. Little acts have a way of snowballing into bigger consequences. I remember my engineer brother once telling me that the beat of a butterfly's wing ends in a hurricane. I believe, nutty as it makes me sound, that I was on that very street presented with that very frightened chipmunk for a reason. I hope I fulfilled my duty.

Jonah was sent by God to preach repentance and redemption to the Ninevites. Jonah was horrified. No way was he going to go try to help those most lowly of beings, those treacherous, sinful, idolaters! Not only did he hate them, but he knew they would not listen anyway! Jonah ran from God, ended up in the belly of a great fish, and after three days, was spit out on dry land. He grudgingly agreed to do what God had asked. He was not pleased. This was hardly the grand and glorious mission he had perhaps dreamed of one day fulfilling. But three days in the stinky belly of a whale convinced him that it is the better part of valor to do as God commands.

When I got home, I received a phone call. It was from the committee to select the Methane Pipe Public Art contest winners. My design won. I am to turn an ugly blue methane pipe eyesore into a thing of beauty. A little thing, but how my heart soared!

Jonah 3:3-10
Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. Jonah began by going a day's journey into the city, proclaiming, "Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown." The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah's warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:
"By the decree of the king and his nobles:
Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish." When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

-save a dog- hollowcreekfarm.org