The Peril Of Little Things

By John Stallings

I read about a man who was aboard the Titanic when it sank after striking an iceberg in 1912.

 He escaped this horrific tragedy in one the ship's lifeboats. In the Navy three years later he was aboard a ship when a German submarine fired a torpedo at it. He escaped death for a second time in the middle of the ocean.

He was a man who survived huge obstacles. One day however he slipped in the creek next to his house, hit his head & drowned in a foot of water.

A man by the name of James Berkley who hunted man eating tigers & lions didn’t die from the jaws or claws of one of these animals. He died after being scratched by his barnyard cat in his backyard. He developed blood poisoning from the incident & died one year later.

Charles Blondin who was famous for walking a tightrope over Niagara Falls; once he pushed a wheelbarrow filled with sand across, tripped on the doormat of his own home & fractured his leg. A year & a half later he died from complications that developed from the injury.

It’s amazing how people can overcome the largest problems & trip over minor tribulations. The truth is, minor things can & do shatter lives. How many relationships have been ruined because of a minor, often foolish problem? An untrue rumor, a misconception, & someone’s immaturity are minor problems that have the potential to destroy relationships. All too often people win the biggest battles & die climbing the smallest hill. It’s too bad that these minor cuts & bruises of life have such destructive power.

Sometimes the things that we get hurt over are unintentional, things said in a careless moment but you feel the pain & are hurt by the comment. This happens often in our relationships. At other times the hurt could be intentional, when someone wants to cut you. The most damaging thing about this kind of offense is when we get hurt intentionally; if we’re not careful, we’ll let someone else’s mistake rule our destiny.

It's amazing how an offhand comment like, “hey you need driving lessons,” can hit us at just the right time & really sting especially coming from a person who, when you ride with them your knuckles stay white the whole time.

An old acquaintance might say something that rubs you the wrong way & before you know it you’ve said, “Well- why did you say that; you must really despise me. You’ve been hating me for years haven’t you? As a matter of fact you’re just hateful period, aren’t you?”

“I’m sorry, look I’m sorry!”

No you aren’t.”

“Yes I am.”

“Oh, please!”

Sometimes we can take something someone said & suddenly we can add a mutated, perverted heart & intention to it. Now we create a straw-man & the problem takes on a life of its own. It was never intended to have these connotations but now we’ve become victims of the monster we’ve created. We’ve all had the experience of “jumping to conclusions” about something only to later find we were wrong. The mind can play tricks on us & it can happen with very little real evidence to go on.

One time I was talking to a preacher friend of mine & I mentioned to him how easy it was to imagine things that weren’t true. I was telling him that we could get it in our mind that someone didn’t like us or had it in for us & it all could just be imagination. I’ll never forget his reply; “Yeah, but what if that person really doesn’t like you?” There went my theory, but in truth, we both were right. Obviously this was one of my more pragmatic friends.

Think about it. What if it were impossible for you to never be offended again? Wouldn’t life be almost like heaven on earth? Well I can’t tell you how to wave a magic wand & make that happen. I can’t show you how to never be hurt again by the slings & arrows of outrageous fortune. (Pardon the Shakespeare.) Like I heard a comedian say, “I learned the secret to happiness back in the nineties but I forgot to write it down.” Well I haven’t learned any secrets other than things from the Word of God that can certainly be helpful. Ready?

1. Guard your heart.


Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23--NLT

You heart is your internal dictionary where you hold your definitions. Those definitions determine how you define & interpret everything that happens to you. We are constantly building our internal dictionary & our perspective is based on the definitions in this “book.” These perceptions can & very often do tell an individual whether they’ve come to the end of the road or view their situation as nothing but a new beginning. If you’ve placed Godly principles & definitions into your heart, then you will see things from God’s perspective. As Christians this is what we are aiming at & it’s our job, not Gods, to guard & build our hearts & make sure the right attitudes & principles are placed there.

God is more concerned about our heart than anything else. The New Testament tells us to build good treasure in our hearts.

The good man out of the good treasure of his heart will bring forth what is good, and the evil man out of the treasure of his heart brings forth what is evil. For his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. Luke 6:45.

We get to choose what kind of treasure we’re going to build & what definitions we want in our dictionary. The choice is ours.

When God tells us to guard our hearts; that means there’s a lid or door to our hearts that we can open & close. We have to watch that lid like a Hawk because we’re responsible for what goes into our hearts. If it’s not right don’t let it in & if it’s good allow it in; it’s that simple.

Some people wrongly suppose that to show they are open & gracious; they should go around with the lid to their heart open. We sometimes call these people --folk who “wear their heart on their sleeve.” That’s not only wrong it’s dangerous because now you’re at the mercy of everybody’s dysfunction & character deficiency. The next thing you know you’re walking around all beat up & bruised because everything that’s said or done has direct entrance right in to your heart.

God is saying, “Don’t do that, guard your heart for out of it flow the issues of life.

2. Ask God for wisdom.

James tells us that God will give us His wisdom if we’ll just ask for it. But when we get God’s wisdom it won’t do us any good unless we apply it. When you ask for God’s wisdom, you may not like what you hear. As a matter of fact your flesh won’t like what God tells you. It will kick up a big fuss & tell you it won’t work.

God’s wisdom will probably run along the lines of (and I’ve had some experience here) telling you to stop dwelling on the problem & look to Him, forgive & put it behind you, try to work out the misunderstanding with the individual who you feel has hurt you, & consider the things you’ve done to others just as bad as what’s been done to you. You’ll surely be led to pray for the person who hurt you, & to closely inspect your own life. God usually turns natural wisdom on its head. We can be fairly certain that God’s wisdom will go against out human pride, but as you know pride is what turned angels into devils.

Several years ago a well known Charismatic preacher & equally well known Baptist preacher were seated together on a lengthy cross-country flight. They knew each other mostly by reputation. Things progressed rather nicely for a while & the two even found they had numerous things in common. However, something happened in the course of their conversation & their fellowship was suddenly thrown into the deep-freeze. The rest of the several- hour long flight was spent in silence between the two preachers. They left the plane some time later, dazed & confused & relating almost like rank strangers. Both men left puzzled not knowing how or when the wall went up between them & things “went sideways.”

Ten years later both these preachers were invited to speak at a large convention & they found themselves having breakfast together in a hotel coffee shop one morning. As they talked, one of them mentioned the last time they’d seen each other was the flight where they sat together ten years earlier. Since the men were now ten years older & hopefully wiser & more mature, the question came up of how distant they’d become on that flight after just a few minutes of fellowship. The upshot was that the Charismatic preacher had strongly felt the Baptist brother had said something of a snide nature & he’d taken it to mean the preacher felt he was theologically above him. The Baptist brother was shocked & said nothing could have been more wrong & that to the contrary, the Charismatic brother led him to feel he was spiritually superior to him. When these two preachers finally got real with one another they came to realized they’d been victims of a gigantic misunderstanding & because of it they’d lost the opportunity of ten years when they could have been friends.

If malfunctions like this can occur between two men who are full time ministers who pray daily & spend 24/7/365 doing God’s work, it can happen to any of us, & it does. That’s why we must pray for God’s wisdom.

3. Fix your eyes on things eternal.

Recently Juda & I were on a trip & as I drove I noticed two motorcyclists who were sharing our space on the road on that particular day. We’d pass them & a little while later I’d see them coming up behind us & they’d pass us. We played road tag most all day like that & I began to notice a blond wisp of hair waving outside one of the rider’s helmet. It caused me to wonder if the rider was a woman. When Juda awoke after a time I asked her to look at the two motorcyclists when we passed them next time & tell me if she thought the blond hair was a woman or man. As we swung around to get in front to them I asked Juda “what do you think?” She said, “I think you’re going to kill them if you don’t slow up.” I hadn’t realized that I was watching them so closely I was drifting toward them.

Here’s a good rule to follow, on the hi-way or in any area of life: You will ultimately become one with what you’re focusing on.”

2 Cor. 4:18 says, --So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary. But what is unseen is eternal.

When we get too caught up in our earthly cuts & bruises, it may be God’s way of reminding us that our eyes have become too focused on the temporal objects of life.

THAT WHICH IS SEEN IS PASSING. THAT WHICH IS UNSEEN IS YOUR DESTINY!


  Blessings,


 John