“For who hath despised the day of small things?”
For most of my adult life, I maintained a pretty good physical fitness routine. I can hardly remember a time when I didn’t belong to a gym. Whether I was in high school, serving in the Marines, finishing college and starting a career, or serving in the Missouri General Assembly, I went to the gym several times a week - it had become normal to me and allowed me to better manage other expectations I had for my physical fitness.
I was so conditioned to it that if I skipped a week - or sometimes even a day - I could almost feel my body beginning to atrophy. It was probably all in my head, but I was in good shape, and the discipline had created condition and expectations.
Then life changed.
After I left the legislature in 2019, I wasn’t in charge of my schedule anymore. I had employers with demands on my time. I was married, had two children, and another on the way.
Life got away from me.
The one thing I said would never happen finally happened: I fell completely out of my fitness routine. My body began to show it, and I began to feel it.
At first, I thought, I’ll get right back into it, but responsibilities multiplied and gym time became incredibly tempting extra rest at the end of a long day. Weeks became months. Months became years. And the number on the scale was climbing.
I always intended to get back into shape. But the farther I got from where I used to be, the farther away getting back there Eventually seemed.
The drive to the gym wasn’t difficult. I drive places every day. What became difficult was getting into the car knowing I was about to be reminded of just how far I had fallen from where I used to be.
Eventually, though, you have to tell your body what it’s going to do. You have to get around all the excuses standing between you and picking up that dumbbells. And so I did.
And that’s when I noticed something.
All the little things I was using as excuses were things I never thought twice about when I was already in the routine.
Driving there. Changing clothes. Finding the time. Being sore the next morning - they weren’t obstacles before. They were simply part of the process.
But now I was looking at losing twenty pounds, rebuilding my strength, and recovering years of lost conditioning. It seemed like an eternity. In my mind, I might as well have been training for Mr. Olympia - and I had absolutely no intention of competing for Mr. Olympia.
That’s one of the strange things about starting over. The little things that once seemed like a normal part of the process can suddenly look like mountains blocking your path when you find yourself back at square one.
Maybe the mountain hasn’t actually gotten any higher - maybe you’re just standing at the bottom again, remembering what it was like to be halfway up.
So here’s some of the good practical advice for life and for where you find yourself spiritually with God.
In Zechariah 4, Israel has returned from years of Babylonian captivity, and the temple in Jerusalem is being rebuilt from the rubble of what was once, a glorious temple Bill biking Solomon.
The work had begun under Zerubbabel, the governor, but it had stalled out due to opposition and discouragement.
Compared to Solomon’s previous temple, what they were building might have looked unimpressive - small beginnings for a temple that would fall far short of the glorious temple that Solomon built. What’s more, is it was being built in large part by people who have been held in captivity, not by the citizens of a massive and wealthy kingdom ruled by the wisest man to have ever lived.
Some of the people were looking at what Zerubbabel had accomplished so far and were likely thinking, “This isn’t much.” Or even “We’re not doing far enough.” And that was fair - the rebuilt temple didn’t initially look like the amazing and glorious achievement people remembered from Solomon’s day, it looked like a pile of rubble and ash left behind by outsiders who invaded from thousands of miles away to sack the city.
So volatile Were the emotions and thoughts of the people that when the first foundation stones were laid, Ezra records that some men rejoiced while others cried. Some might have cried because those first stones represented what once was and how far the people had fallen while others rejoiced because that first stone represented a small victory after years of captivity.
Either way, the temple needed to be rebuilt.
When some of the people started to compare the work they were doing to what had been done before, God’s simple rebuke reminded them that their work wasn’t about their satisfaction - it was about their obedience to keep themselves at work, laying one stone at a time until the walls went up and the temple was complete.
God asks, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” And in that one question reminded them that He is God, not them, and sometimes we have to start the process of redrawing the plans, preparing the ground, and by laying one stone at a time, rebuilding the walls.
Neither the first temple nor the second was built in a single day. Our timing and ability to complete a temple is irrelevant to God because He never asks for perfection, but he does demand obedience; that we remain faithful to lay one stone at a time until the walls go up.