Obedience in the Little Things

On Saturday morning, I headed to the UPS store to mail a stack of my books to my parents. Their church is putting together a fundraiser for a few families (one of which is us!) who are in the process of adopting a child, and my mom asked me to send 10 copies of my books to sell. Since I still have a few here in the attic, I gladly agreed to ship some to her.

But something strange happened as I was driving to the UPS store that morning. I felt the Lord speak to my spirit, telling me I should give the cashier one of my books. I was a little taken aback because I don’t like to push anything on anyone and, being an introvert, I’m certainly not going to begin a conversation with someone and tell them they need to read my book. That just seems ridiculous.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I collected the stack of books and began counting them to ensure I had ten. I hadn’t grabbed ten books, however. In my haste to get out the door that morning, I had actually picked up eleven.

“Ok, Lord. I hear you,” I thought to myself, although I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with this realization.

I walked into the store and waited in line as one employee helped a young man box up a set of tires, (yes, I said a set of tires!) and another employee fingerprinted a customer for a job application. I studied these employees, wondering which one I would be interacting with, which one I was supposed to offer my book to.

When it was finally my turn, I approached the cubicle, placing my stack of books on the countertop. The employee who had summoned me over, a young woman, looked at the books and asked me if I had written them.

I told her that I had written them, and she wanted to know if I sold them locally. I hesitantly explained that I did have some I could sell locally but they could also be purchased on Amazon. The whole conversation actually made me really  uncomfortable but I smiled and attempted to be brave.

We talked a little more as she asked for my address and the address where the books would be shipped. Finally, after I had paid for the shipping, the cashier said this: “Well, I’m going to have to write down your name so I can get one of your books.”

Apparently this was the invitation I had been waiting for. I picked up the top copy from the stack, handed it to her, and told her I would love for her to take it. Tears appeared in her eyes as she spoke. “You’re going to make me cry. Thank you so much!”

I don’t write this to advertise a book I’ve written. That’s not the point. I have no idea if this woman is a believer or if she has children or if anything in my book will even resonate with her. I certainly hope that if she doesn’t know Jesus, she will read something that will open her eyes to Him. Of course, that’s my hope and prayer anytime someone reads something I write.

I tell you this story because it’s about obedience. James 4:17 tells us it’s a sin if we know what we are supposed to do yet we don’t do it.

But I don’t think I’m always obedient to the Lord. I’m sure everybody feels that way occasionally, right? Right?

We sense a prodding in our conscience but push it back down, ignoring the feeling that we are supposed to talk to that person in front of us. It’s so easy to justify our feelings, believing that it wasn’t the Lord’s still small voice nudging us forward.

Sometimes it’s hard to be obedient to the Lord, even in the seemingly small things like the encounter I described. But I know that if I can’t obey Him in the small things, He will never trust me with the big things. With my God-sized dreams that keep bubbling to the surface, just waiting to be realized.

What is keeping you from being obedient to the Lord today? What opportunity might you be overlooking because of fear or insecurity? What God-appointment might you miss because you are tuning out His voice?

I am thankful today that I hesitantly gave away one of my books to the sweet lady at the UPS store. It may seem like nothing, but I know that it wasn’t nothing. It was something. It was obedience.