How Big Is Your Tank?
Once there was a corporation that debated whether to move its headquarters to a larger city where airports, support services, and other organizations offering partnership would be better.
The argument against moving the headquarters was that staying in a small city had advantages. Long lasted the argument that seemed to come to an end with one speaker’s analogy: “I would rather be a big fish in a little pond than be a little fish in a big pond.”
The corporation stayed in the smaller city. While the corporation grew leadership of the corporation has continued unto this day to think with the ego of a big fish in a small pond, and there has been no capacity to think of what could have been if the headquarters had moved to the larger city.
During our recent mission trip around the world, Laila and I had the pleasure of being hosted our last night in the Philippines by friends in Manila. As we sat in their home, I watched their teenage son check on his beautiful aquarium fish. The larger fish was about 8 inches long, a stunning testimony of God’s creative hand.
“How big will the fish grow?” I asked Miguel. “Oh, that will depend upon the size of the aquarium,” he replied. “This fish will not get much larger. However, if this fish is put in a huge aquarium it would grow MUCH larger.”
He was not trying to make a dynamic statement, only state a fact. However, in that moment my mind was captured with one of the great divides of humanity --folks who have a propensity to stay in a world where thinking is small versus folks who love to be around others who think big ideas.
I am reminded of a plaque on the classroom wall of my four-classroom (8 grades), wood frame, pot-bellied wood stove for heat, and dirt playground elementary school. In every room there was a simple framed statement with black letters spelling out a big message:
Small minds talk about people. Average minds talk about things and places. Great minds talk about ideas.
Attending some of America’s finest universities has not impacted me any more than that simple sign. Jesus struggled with people who wanted to think like fish in a tiny little aquarium. Because of his pride and financial security, even the High Priest, who was supposed to be the physical symbol of the coming Messiah, could not see Jesus as Emmanuel (Matthew 1:21,22). Jesus often spoke in parables to the most intelligent people of his society, because they were trapped by small thinking. Going aside with his disciples, Jesus would make an effort to get them to see the BIG IDEA. Jesus struggled all the way to Calvary to sell the BIG IDEA of redemption’s plan with only limited success. Most of those closest to Jesus seemed to be noticeably absent during Jesus’ trial and crucifixion.
It took Jesus’ resurrection from the dead to convince his disciples to move to a larger aquarium where big thinking allowed for big ideas and big actions and big results. On the Day of Pentecost, Peter preached and 3,000 were added to the Church. A fire caught hold as the idea of the Kingdom and return of Jesus captured the hearts of believers.
One of the grand things that happens on a mission trip is to have an encounter with God on the back side of the world. Moses’ encounter with the burning bush is an example (Exodus 3:2). Being ten thousand miles from home and daily seeing and experiencing God’s favor reveals that many of the trials of serving the Lord and being a pastor are no bigger than a fly on the nose. Thinking small magnifies the fly until it is bigger than an elephant; however, from a distance, it is evident that the nuisance of a fly is not worth losing sight of the grand plan of the Church. Our part in the Great Commission is to go into all the world and preach, baptize, and make believers (Matthew 28:18-20). In Acts 1:8 Jesus affirms that we are given divine power to get the job done.
To Covenant Church and to every person who reads this letter, I challenge you: Are you a little fish trying to act big in a small pond---no possibility of any more growth? Or, are you a fish thinking big ideas in a big pond and believing that what Jesus has sent you to do is so big that hell cannot defeat you?
All of us are in life’s aquarium. The difference between us and the fish is that we can determine the size of our own aquarium. Is your thinking small, average, or great? -- just a thought to ponder. I know where Jesus wants you, and I think you also know. One sure thing: you will not think any bigger than the people around you.
Much love
Pastor Bare
John 14:12