Start with what you have...

There's a verse in the Bible (Zechariah 4 vs 10) that tells us not to despise the day of small beginnings. Often, as I mentor or coach people who have a vision to do something big for God, I discover that they haven't actually started to step out, because they don't yet have the people or the finances or the resources to accomplish their "big vision." In my experience, few of these God-given visions are very big in the beginning. In Austria, in Scotland, in South Africa, and now here in Spain, I've seen that we often need to step out with what we have, and do something that seems small and relatively insignificant, before we begin to see the release of the "something bigger" that God has in store for us.

In Cape Town, we had a vision for a computer ministry that would involve reaching dozens or even hundreds of teenagers to equip them with computer skills and with an opportunity to respond to the gospel. Only problem was... we didn't have twenty computers, and we didn't have the money to buy them, either. So, in obedience to God, we started with what we had: our two old computers from the KKI office. We invited four teenage girls to our house, and we had the first ever Project Powerlink "camp." It was a small beginning - but we were stepping out with what we had. A local businessman heard of what we were doing... and just two years later, we had our own "computer lab" with sixteen computers at a township school. As part of our schools ministry, we were teaching computer skills to around 270 young people every week.

Yes, I'm a firm believer in the fact that visions which are really from God will always be "too big" for us. We'll not be able to achieve them in our own strength or with our own resources, but will need to depend on God to do miracles for us. Often those miracles only happen when we step out in faith, and start to do the little we can with the few resources that we do have available now. If we hang around waiting for the "something bigger," we may never activate the faith needed for it to happen. As Zechariah said, so many centuries ago, we mustn't despise the days of small beginnings.

What has God put on your heart? Don't hold back, thinking that it's just impossible, but ask God what He expects of you, here and now. What is the "small beginning" that you need to make, in order to see the breakthrough of the bigger vision?

Recently, someone who knows that I strongly believe in this principle was teasing me about my dream to have a dog again some day. I was joking that my "ideal job" in retirement would be to train dogs for Hollywood movies, or at least to have my own border collie again that I could train to do fun and useful things around the house. "Start with what you have," she joked. "Practise by training those cats of yours!"

Well, as most people know, border collies just love to learn clever stuff and will happily perform tricks just for the fun of it, just to please you, or just to show off.  Cats, on the other hand, are much more independent, often have selective hearing (click here to read an example of that) and tend to need "bribed" with treats in order to do the clever stuff you're trying to teach them. But I had seen video clips of people who taught their dogs and cats the same tricks, and so, just for the fun of it, I rose to the challenge. For those who've asked, here is the first video of Teddi learning his "Say please" trick. Please don't despise this day of small beginnings!! And don't worry, I don't see this as a step to getting a dog any time soon :-)