The Big Picture

My wife Shannon read me an interesting quote the other day that I’d like to share. It was from a man named R. G. LeTourneau who was a machine builder in the Navy during World War I. He said,

“The electrical system of a battleship is so complex that I know a lot of men were too overwhelmed to try to grasp it. Ask one what he was doing, and he’d say, ‘I’m winding a coil’, or ‘I’m hooking up a generator.’ Well, I may be winding a coil or hooking up a generator, but my own idea was that I was building a battleship. You may consider that a small conceit, but I have come to consider it highly important. The coil winder who thinks he is building a battleship has added a whole lot more to his job than a few strands of copper wire. He is not winding wire but creating magnetic fields, and magnetic fields made the motor go round, and the motors give life to the ship.”

LeTourneau had a big view of his job. And this made him excited about his job, gave him motivation to do the best job he could. He wasn’t just winding some meaningless wire. He was powering the ship that hundreds of crew members depended on.

Serving the church is similar. Maybe you are a greeter, or an usher, or maybe you clean the building for one of our three locations. It’s easy to look at your particular role and think that it’s not that big of a deal, or to get worn out or tired. Maybe you don’t feel like you are making a difference or you don’t feel like what you are doing matters.

In his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul tells the believers “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). Think about that for a moment. We are actually Jesus’ body here on earth! We display what God is like to people who don’t know Him. When Jesus wants to do something, reach out to someone with love, give someone provision, He does it through us, His body!

We have to keep this in mind when we serve in whatever capacity we are given. We don’t just clean toilets, open doors for people, or put out more chairs. Through our serving with the whole of Jubilee Church we have the grand responsibility and privilege of displaying who God is. We are God’s body! So don’t look down on yourself or think for a moment that your part is small. What you do has eternal significance because of the big picture.