A Tiny Staple...

          ​Last week I found myself in a dilemma. My laptop battery had gone low and so I plugged in my charger to charge it. Nothing happened. The light on the charger wasn’t coming on and it wasn’t even fitting properly into the charger socket on my laptop. I was confused. I finally concluded that my charger was no longer working so I set about trying to acquire a new one. A few days later, while in a session online with some of my students, one of my daughters was trying frantically to get my attention. I was using her laptop to conduct my zoom class while my laptop lay on the table nearby. After the class, I found out why she was trying to get my attention. She had discovered the reason why my charger wasn’t working. It so turned out that because my laptop port is magnetic, a tiny stapler had somehow gotten into the slot so that when I tried to attach my charger it was not fitting properly and therefore could not work. Once she got the staple out, the charger fit perfectly and started charging my laptop again. What amazed me was how in the world she even saw this tiny staple in the first place. I didn’t see a thing. And as a result, what seemed to be a “major” problem turned out to be a very “minor” one.
         The thought comes to mind that so many times we make a big deal out of something small and insignificant. I think sometimes the devil magnifies the problem we’re looking at and we happily, without realizing it, take the bait and get ourselves more worked up over something than we ought to. God wants to give us joy and peace. But, the devil finds ways to magnify a problem designed to steal that same joy and peace that God is trying to give us.
         As I remember the children of Israel in the Old Testament, how many times did their enemies seem so much bigger and more fearful than they? Oh, their enemies were real AND bigger and better equipped sometimes, but their God was ALWAYS bigger than their biggest enemy. David faced Goliath (1 Samuel 17), bigger than him, but in reality, much tinier from God’s perspective. King Jehoshaphat and his people faced a combined enemy army (2 Chronicles 20), much bigger than their army but from God’s perspective so small and insignificant. And let’s not forget Gideon. He and his army of three hundred men faced a significantly larger  army (Judges 7:6-12). The enemy seemed so much larger to them and they were, but from God’s perspective they were but a tiny thing. 
         I think this is why we really need to keep our eyes on God. When we put our eyes on the problem the devil will always magnify it and make it seem more intimidating, more impossible. But when our eyes are on God, that intimidating, impossible situation becomes smaller and smaller as we are reminded that our God can handle ANYTHING, no matter how big that anything seems in our eyes. 

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