This summer was an unusually hectic one, not just because of multiple ministry activities, but also because we had to give some serious time and attention to some preventative and corrective maintenance around our house. These projects coupled with ministry responsibilities hindered me from writing over the summer as I had planned. Lord willing, I plan to post more regularly over the fall and winter months. Although I have several other things in the works for the blog, I wanted to get back to writing by sharing a something that is becoming a greater concern of mine the longer that I am in ministry and ministering to people — something that was illustrated with one of our maintenance projects this past summer.
Living where we do in Newfoundland, in the city of Corner Brook, you are always on an incline — there are very few flat lots around town. For us, this created some drainage issue in our back yard and in our driveway particularly. In order to try to remedy this, we undertook several projects this year, including installing a 60-foot french drain system in the back yard, installing gutters on the house, and regrading the driveway. My goal was that each of these projects would tie into each other and carry water away from our yard and driveway out to the storm drain at the edge of the road. However, only one of these projects was as straightforward as I expected — as is the case with many home improvement projects.
One project that was not planned for this summer, but became a necessity after excavating and grading our driveway was the installation of a retaining wall in order to keep the hillside between us and our neighbor from collapsing into the driveway. After doing some research on available materials and retaining wall construction methods, I settled on a product called Allan block, and began my first attempt at building a retaining wall.
As with any construction, the most important thing to get right with a retaining wall is the foundation. Multiple hours and days went into digging, grading, measuring, and compacting the base before we ever laid the first row of block because, if we didn’t get that right, the entire wall would be weakened and could, in time, collapse.
Once the foundation was compacted, each block had to be individually leveled front to back, side to side, and with each other. It was painstaking work that often required multiple attempts with one block before we got it right and could move on to the next. In theory, if we took our time and did it right with the first row, the remaining rows would be easy since all we had to do was stack them on the blocks that were already leveled and in place. Thankfully, this turned out to be the case, and the remaining rows all fit into place perfectly with only minor adjustments needed. The wall progressed smoothly, as we set the blocks into place, checking the level, and back-filling with gravel. That is, until the final outside corner on the top row.
Although we had been careful to make sure that the corners formed a perfect 90-degree angle, when we tried to place the top corner block, it would not make a right angle, no matter what we tried. It was off by at least 1/2 of an inch. Somewhere along the way we had gotten off on a lower row and it was now showing up on the top row. As we examined the rows beneath, we really didn’t notice any deviations — if it was there, it was so slight we could’t see it. After considering our options, we decided that since it was the top row, we could cut the block in a way that would allow us to square up the capstones and hide the misalignment of the brick. It worked, and with the entire wall completed, most people will probably never notice it.
As I mulled over the construction of the wall and the difficulty we had with the top corner block, two principles stand out to me that are applicable to the Christian life and vocational ministry.
a minor deviation now can result in a significant error in the future.
As best I can figure, our corner angle got off two rows below the top one, but the deviations were so minor that they were not noticeable. It wasn’t obvious until three rows of block later that something was off, and it was noticeable in a big way. What was minor, insignificant, and virtually undetectable three rows ago had now come to light and had become a major issue.
In the same way, a small deviation from God’s standards as revealed in His Word can result in unintended consequences down the road. As a child of God, God has given me His Word as my manual for daily living. In its pages God has recorded and preserved all that is needed for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3-4). When Jesus Christ was tempted in the wilderness he rebuked Satan by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3 (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4) and reinforcing the importance of living according to the Word of God. As a matter of fact, God specifically warned Joshua against deviating from His law when the nation of Israel entered into the land of Canaan to possess it.
Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. 8 This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.Joshua 1:7-8
Joshua, as a whole, stayed true to God’s Word and led the nation of Israel according to God’s law. However, it wasn’t very long after his death that the Israelites began to deviate from God’s commands. Instead of possessing the land completely, they gave up easily when certain nations were more powerful. Instead of destroying the pagans that God told them to destroy, they put them to tribute. The entire book of Judges stands as a stark reminder of just how far slight deviations can and will take you if left uncorrected (Judges 17:7; 21:25).
the results of “minor deviations” are often not seen until much further down the road.
This is an extension of the first observation, but it deserves its own consideration. The choices that we deem “insignificant” often seem that way simply because we do not see the immediate effects of those choices. They are mundane, normal, and insignificant, and we often ignore them for that very reason. However, we often fail to realize the long-term effect those decisions can have. While individually those choices may seem to be insignificant, it is the cumulative effect of multiple “insignificant” decisions over time that yields significant results in the future.
The decisions that Israel made at the end of Joshua’s life may not have seemed like a big deal at the time, but the results down the road were anything but insignificant when their children and grandchildren suffered repeated captivity at the hand of hostile nations as a result of God’s judgment (Judges 2:8-23).
Concluding thoughts
While the focus of this post has been meditations on the negative results that can come from deviating from the truth, I want to close with a word of encouragement as well as the word of warning.
The encouragement and warning is this — these principles are true of both good decisions and poor decisions. Just as a slight deviation from the truth in the present can lead to much larger error in the future, so a small change to do what is right can lead to major change for the good down the road.
Often when someone comes to me asking for help it is because they have found themselves in a problem and they don’t see how they got there or how to get out of it. Part of my job as a pastor is to take the Word of God and show them not just how the “little,” “insignificant” decisions got them to where they are today, but also how regular, consistent, obedience to God’s Word can correct and resolve the problematic situation. In other words, my desire is to show people the significance of the mundane in their life, both good and bad. Unfortunately, many, all too often, want the miraculous instead of the mundane. They reject the truth of Scripture, aimlessly continuing to search for a “supernatural formula” while persisting in the “insignificant” life choices that brought them to the place of hardship in the first place.
Thus, my challenge from these meditations is twofold:
- Recognize the danger of deviation. Understand that minor deviations now can and will lead you much further off course in the future. In life and ministry, the changes and decisions you make today will be multiple times greater in the future.
- Embrace the mundane in your walk with the Lord. Be consistent, faithful, and deliberate. Enoch was a relatively insignificant character in the Old Testament when compared to others. Yet God highlights him above others because he simply walked with God consistently for 300 years. (Genesis 5:22, 24; Hebrews 11:5-6).
