There are some who tell you and I details don’t matter. “Look at the big picture,” they say. “Don’t get bogged down by the specifics,” is the voice from others in the same crowd. Everyone on the same message; “lighten up, take it easy, don’t sweat the small stuff.”
I would like to gently suggest that details matter, a lot. It is easy to acknowledge that some are too focused on the wrong details, but that fact shouldn’t distract us from paying attention to the nuances of life. Think through some of the “small” things that happen in life. Remember the markers that define your life and mine. Examine what happens with the specifics of commitments made are discarded casually, carelessly, or without any apparent thought.
Life lies in the small things. The one you love remembers to smile, say “I love you”, and wishes you all the best of everything for a day. A child says “thank-you” for something that most kids take for granted. As clich?d, predictable, and regular as these things are they make the difference between life being an ongoing storm and the first day of spring.
Far too often I find myself caught in the trap of yesterday’s details, forgetting that some details lie in committed action and activities. When a smile is forced it isn’t a smile. When sarcasm laces the conversation it is hard to feel the positive sincerity. If you know something is a lie it is as if you are eating rotten fruit; no matter how good it looks the facts is that you feel sick.
Details, even the one that mark who you are, how you life, and the choices you make, matter. It isn’t just the way others treat you, this includes our actions as well. “It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.” (John 4.23b)
