It’s the little things — the small tests — that always trip me up the most, that interfere with my daily Christian walk. I can bear the stress of a looming deadline at work or the big unexpected repairs at home or even an extended hospital stay. But ask me how well I handle dropping a spoon when setting the table or a yapping dog at 3:00 am, and I have to admit (sheepishly) that I do not handle it too well at all. Anger and frustration and cursing are all waiting for me at those times because it seems so much more controllable than a big calamity.

I wonder if our perspectives get messed up with our facade of control. It plays a big part in my own life when I worry over small things – as if there were a part of the universe in which I am actually in charge and have somehow failed to manage properly. I have to give up my self-appointed role as overseer of the universe; that job is already filled.

James is convicting not just because I do not hold the “long view” in my sight (God’s work for my perfection) but because I cannot control my tongue either. But to the first goal: we tend to think of endurance in the big calamities of life, but we forget the “long obedience in the same direction”. Our small daily decisions to follow Christ shape who we are — and what trajectory our life is on.