Incremental Progress
Exodus 23:29-30 I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.
Acts 3:1-8 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God.
As a person who could be described as a perfectionist, I tend to only want to do things if I can do them to 100%. So, projects where I don’t feel like I have all the necessary knowledge or materials, I tend to put off or not do entirely. After all, I want to do something once and right. I hate buying the same thing over and over again because I go cheap. But as life circumstances have changed, I’ve found the weakness in this way of thinking.
For example, there are several areas that I want to pave in my backyard. While I have the bricks that I intend to use as pavers, I don’t have the funds available to buy all the things involved to install them. And so, this has meant that certain areas in my backyard have been a mess for a couple of years as I prioritized purchasing other things. But the reality is that I can put the bricks down on the dirt. And if I do that, then I can organize my backyard better. Yes, the bricks won’t be as uniform, sloped properly, and they will heave over time. But spending a small amount of time will provide me with a much-needed and desired benefit now, even if it isn’t everything I want it to be (and think it should be).
The reality is that there are many things in this life that are simply impossible, very improbable, or out of reach at the moment. But if we can achieve some success now, why shouldn’t we take the opportunity for what it is? For example, maybe the church you belong to isn’t willing to dive headfirst into whatever project you were thinking. But if they are willing to dip their toe in, that might be the best that they can do at the moment. They may not be able to afford to build a whole school building with 20 classrooms, but they can afford a portable building. They might not be able to network with several churches to start a big recovery program, but they may be able to partner with one church to host AA meetings.
Only being able to do something small or only achieving small steps forward can be frustrating. Such achievements can sometimes even be more aggravating than having no forward movement at all. But sometimes, there is a God-ordained purpose to slow incremental change. In the case of the Israelites, God could have given them all the land that He had promised them right away. But the problem with achieving 100% success so quickly was that they wouldn’t be able to manage everything God was going to give them. It was only by controlled growth and expansion that they wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the blessings of God. Or perhaps put another way, they needed time to grow as a people in order to not be overwhelmed by everything God was going to give them.
It is good to have lofty goals and set our eyes on the prize, but sometimes we have to accept what God places in front of us. Each step is an opportunity to grow in proportion to where we, and the people around us, currently are. We may think we are ready, we may even be ready, but the truth is that we are the body of Christ, not simply individual members. If one of the members grows too quickly and disproportionately to the other members, it puts a strain on everyone else. For example, your legs may be ready to run 20 miles today, but if the lungs can’t do it, you aren’t going to make it the whole distance. What would happen if you didn’t run at all then? Your legs would atrophy, and your lungs would never increase their capacity. But by running some, you can grow the parts of you that need growing, while hopefully maintaining or at least slowing the decline of other parts.
The same is true in the church. There are a lot of things that are not perfect now. In fact, the Bible tells us that nothing will be perfect until we get to heaven (1 Corinthians 15:53-54). But that doesn’t mean we should give up striving to better ourselves. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look around and identify what things we can achieve today, even if we can’t achieve everything we think or want to achieve. Moreover, when we do that, sometimes we end up achieving or receiving more than what we expected.
In the case of the lame man by the Temple, he was only expecting or wanting some money. Now, Peter didn’t have the means to meet this man’s expectations. But, in taking the first small step to go to the temple, the lame man was present to receive something far greater, the ability to walk. Peter, in taking the first small step to go to the temple to preach, was in a position to facilitate something he probably didn’t know he would that morning (Acts 3:12). In other words, in both cases, it was the willingness to take the small incremental step, that put both of them in a position to receive and facilitate something greater. Sure, the man received the ability to walk, which was miraculous in itself. But the saving faith that about 5,000 men came to have was the greatest of all things that happened that day (Acts 4:1-4).
This concept is equally important when it comes to moving the churches closer to working together and recognizing that all believing churches are members of the same body and family. After all, such a change is hardly likely to happen overnight. Rather, it will take small incremental changes that will probably be frustrating at every single step. But who knows, maybe at a certain point, one of those seemingly small steps will lead to some very big changes.
Have you ever been frustrated by the lack of movement in your church or organization towards a particular goal? How have you seen small victories lead to big successes? At what times have you found that it was good that the changes were small because they helped you work things out in a much better way?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.
Used by permission.
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