Late last month, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) encountered a major disruption. With many companies worldwide relying on AWS, it is said that many websites and online services started failing. As it turns out, an engineering team was working on some minor issue and the task called for taking offline a small part of the system. But when the command was entered, the result was that other parts of the system somehow started failing and shutting down as well. And when an investigation was conducted, investigators discovered that the cause of the outage was a simple typo—a typing error in the command entry.
Grace and I had an embarrassing experience a few years ago. Another church was conducting a sunrise service on Easter morning. We promoted the event and encouraged members of our church to get up early on Easter morning and attend the sunrise service.
On Saturday night, I set my alarm clock to make sure that we got up early enough the next morning. Then we went to bed. But the next thing I hear is Grace anxiously asking, “What time is it?” The sun was already up. We had overslept! We jumped up, got dressed as fast as we could, and rushed to the venue of the sunrise service. But when we got there, the people were already leaving. And we even encountered some of our church members who waved at us as they drove away. Embarrassing!
What happened? I had set our alarm for 5:30. But when I checked our clock after the event I discovered the alarm was set for 5:30 PM instead of AM! A little error, yet with awkward consequences.
I recently heard about the testimony of a pastor and chaplain. As a youth he engaged in heavy substance abuse. One time he was hitchhiking and was picked up by a van full of nuns. For about thirty minutes they talked to him about Jesus. He did not make any kind of decision that day, but it caused him to start thinking about his spiritual life. And it ultimately led him to surrender his life to Christ and become a minister of the gospel.
Who would have thought that a few minutes with a bunch of nuns would contribute significantly in the turning of a wayward youth into a minister of the gospel? A little thing. But now many other lives have been touched by the gospel through his ministry as a pastor and chaplain.
Sometimes we take for granted the “little things.” Yet, somehow, it is the “little things” that often create a ripple effect that could result in something significantly greater than intended. Perhaps we need to learn to pay a bit more attention to the little things in our lives. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord might use them to accomplish something significant for the cause of the kingdom—in you or through you.
—Keith Y. Jainga