We
dream of doing ‘great’ deeds in
the future, but often fail to see the many ‘small’
things that could be done in the present; thus,
life slips by, and the opportunities to do ‘great’
deeds might never come our way, or if they do,
we might not be able to use them because we
did not prepare ourselves by doing what was
within our capacity when it was, but which we
perhaps thought was unworthy of our attention
or beneath our dignity.
In the
Tao Te Ching (chapter 63), we find: "In
the Universe, great acts are made up of small
deeds." And Jesus is reported to have said—in
Luke 16:10—"He who is faithful in
what is least is faithful also in much."
Some
of us look down upon certain kinds of work,
but the lowliest form of work can be ennobled
if we know how to do it, for it is we who designate
things as ‘great’, ‘small’,
‘important’, ‘unimportant’,
and so on, is it not? If we take care of ‘small’
things, we shall probably be able to deal with
‘great’ things, too. But if we are
careless with small things, we probably shall
be no more careful with great things! |
