(Continued from Part 1.)

Wretched Radio host Todd Friel continued with questioning why Christians imply (or say directly) that living for God in the best ways mean doing things for Him in the biggest ways.

I mentioned that I went to the conference this week, and a little bit of it — didn’t get to see the whole thing. What I saw was very nice and very good. But there is even a danger in a nice conference like Do Hard Things. That’s the name of the book by Alex and Brett Harris, encouraging teenagers: “do something hard. … Do something for God.”

But we gotta be careful that we don’t do Do Hard Things, and turn it into Do Big Things.

… We are so inclined to grab a story like — okay, pick your favorite missionary. “Look at what this missionary did and accomplished by the age of six. Do that.” And I’m afraid that we put a monstrously big burden on people, first of all, especially if it is not Gospel-centered. “Do this in response!” needs to be our do message, not just do it because — hey, do you want to be considered great?

(The Duran Duran song starts up again …)

Do you want to be in the history books?

(“Do-do, do-do-do, do-do-do, do-do-do, doo-doo …”)

We gotta get away from that message.

Fortunately, though I haven’t read the book, I understand the Harrises include a chapter about how it’s often hard to do small things. Yet I also know, based on human nature with supporting evidence from my own thought processes, that it’s very easy for those who’ve done the big Hard Things to rise to the top. And those who’ve attempted the Hard Things, but for whatever reasons failed, don’t get as much time to share their testimonies, do they?

To paraphrase Kevin DeYoung: sometimes we need to Do Plodding Things. Such tasks may not save the world, or be worth hosting a conference or writing a book, but they glorify our God.

Tomorrow: Pastors have many pressures to do more; but God only wants faithfulness.