The Power of Small

by Lori Hatcher @LoriHatcher2

Have you ever attended a writers’ conference where they gave an award for “Smallest Blog in the Blogosphere”? How about a gold-embossed certificate for “Fewest Pageviews”? “Lowest Royalty Check”? “Subterranean Amazon Book Rating”? “Facebook Post with No Shares”?

Some of my writer friends have blog posts that have gone viral. Others have subscriber bases numbering in the Ks (15K, 20K). Some have dozens of books to their credit, and others actually get advances on their publishing contracts (I know, what’s a publishing contract?). They have editors pitching books to them instead of the other way around.

But they are exceptions.

The majority of writers will never have a viral blog post, a book contract, or an editor chasing them down at a writers’ conference. They won’t make a living from their writing or see their names on the New York Times’ Best Seller List. They may never even see their writing in print.

If this describes you, are you a writing failure?

Maybe. Maybe not.

If you’re writing for fame and fortune and haven’t accomplished it, perhaps you are a failure. But if you’re writing because the Lord has placed a message on your heart and told you to share it, then no, you are most certainly not a failure.

If your writing world is small, then you may be just the person God wants to use.

How do I know?

Today is Christmas. Over two millennia ago, God executed the most important step in his plan of redemption—he sent his son into the world.

And God used small to make it happen.

He used an unknown teenaged girl to carry his son.

“And Mary said: ‘My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant’” (Luke 1:46-48).

He sent her to a tiny town to give birth.

"But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2).

And he revealed Messiah’s advent to those insignificant people society overlooked—mangy shepherds, a faithful widow, and an old man (Luke 2).

And what does he think about you—small, seemingly insignificant, and certainly not a rock star writer?

“Though the Lord is on high, yet he regards the lowly . . .” (Psa. 128:4-6).

Last week I received a royalty statement from an anthology that contained one of my stories. Each writer was to earn one percent of the income generated by the book. My statement read: “Net due to writer, -$.02.

Don’t miss the minus sign. It’s not a dash. It’s a negative. I thought zero was small, but MINUS two cents? What does that even look like?

On the same day, I received an email from a woman who read my blog post, “How to Know It’s God Speaking to You.” The Lord used it to give her the courage to apologize and ask someone she’d wronged years ago to forgive her. “I thought the Lord was speaking to me, but reading your blog post confirmed it.”

Wonder of wonders, God didn’t choose a mega blogger to touch this lady. He didn’t use a bestselling book off Lifeway’s shelves. He didn’t use a viral post off Facebook. He used my small blog post, on my small blog, to encourage one small woman to take steps to repair one small relationship.

All for his glory.

A small town in Israel. A small teenaged girl. Mangy shepherds, a faithful widow, a little old man—and our small writing lives—all tools in the Master’s hands.

Will you surrender the small in your life for God’s use? There’s no telling what he’ll do with it.

May you have a very merry Christmas and a new year full of writing that brings God glory.