If you Google search “His Name is Flowing Oil” you will find an article I wrote on March 13th of last year as one of the top results. It places higher than even the website for the organization that I wrote the article about, His Name is Flowing Oil Ministry. At the time this article is being written, more than 100 people in the last 30 days have viewed the article I wrote in March, His Name is Flowing Oil???, making it the page with the second-highest traffic on our website, the first highest behind our homepage. Our church even gets occasional emails from people asking for the article on His Name is Flowing Oil. It has been read by people in three different continents!
When I wrote that article, I did not think much of it. It is only 412 words and, honestly, I did not think it was all that special. It is not the Reese’s Peace’s that I put the most time into writing. That title is held by How Can the Church Address Our Cold-Blooded Reptilian Overlords, which has only had 16 page views in the last 30 days. It makes no sense to me why this one little article about a rather niche topic would have such an impact.
This is often how life works. It is the small things that we do not think too much about that make the largest impact. A smile to a stranger can give them the confidence to ace a job interview and land their dream job. Giving up a seat on a bus to a tired parent could give them the rest they need to help their child with their math homework, letting that child get an A+ in math for the first time. Writing a kind message to a friend in need may be just the thing they need to feel as if they are not alone in this world.
Without a doubt, small things can have big results. However, unlike my niche newsletter article, most small things do not have analytics software that neatly displays the far-reaching impact of their ripples. That does not mean the results of small things are not real. As we all make a transition this January from 2020 into 2021, and as a church into a new period of ministry, it is important to remember that even small things can have large impacts. There is nothing done with God that cannot changes lives, no matter how insignificant it might seem in the moment.