PUSH BUTTONS
A Little PB & J
Let’s have a little trivia.
First Question: If a piece of paper is folded in two, then in half again, and again, how thick will it be after fifty folds?
Second Question: Choose between (A) receiving $1,000 every day for 30 days or (B) receiving 1 cent on day 1, 2 cents on day 2, 4 cents on day 3, 8 cents on day 4, and so on until day 30.
The answer to the first question, assuming the piece of paper is 0.004 inches thick, is about 60 million miles. For context, this is the distance between the earth and the sun! With the second question, option A gives you a total of $30,000 and option B gives you about $ 5 million. I’m guessing like Divine Oduduru you never h’esppered it. That’s the power of little foxes; they yield results that are often difficult to estimate “off the top of your head.”
And do not give the devil a foot hold — Ephesians 4:26
The Bible is rife with instructions, warnings and examples of the impact of “just a little sin.” From Abraham’s actions in Genesis 12 being arguably one of the reasons for Israel’s enslavement in Egypt to Saul’s partial obedience being the genesis of the tearing of the kingdom from him to David’s indiscretion with Bathsheba and his hasty proouncement of judgment on Prophet Nathan’s analogy being the root cause of massive family disruptions and so on. It becomes clear that little sins, don’t stay little.
The Bible was clear in Galatians 5:9, a little leaven, i.e. a slight inclination to error, leavens the whole batch. This is because while little foxes may start seemingly harmless, they tend to go further than one can estimate “off the top of the head” — it’s a slippery slope. It’s the reason why the bible says “flee every appearance.” It’s why regardless of the morality arguments or high-falutin theories of relativity, such as how far is too far, complete abstinence from vices is the surefire way to avoid addictions and problems because “na so e dey take start”; from walking by, to standing, to sitting (Psalm 1:1)
And God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong — 1 Corinthians 1:27B
In the same vein, the bible is also rife with instructions, admonitions and examples of the impact of “just a little faith.” From David and Goliath with the five small pebbles (1 Samuel 17) to the multiplier effect of the sounds of the feet of the four leprous men sounding like chariots and armies (2 Kings 7), to the woman with the oil that never stopped flowing (2 Kings 4), to the feeding of five thousand with five loaves of bread (because let’s be candid, how far did the person who gave it up really think it could have gone?), to Jesus’s declaration of the power of faith as tiny as a mustard seed (Matthew 17:20), we see that, like the 90’s Kids Song, little is much when God is in it.
Even in layman’s parlance, there are quotes and idioms that communicate the same truth, such as “give a person an inch and he would take a mile” or “na from clap dance dey start” because the phenomena of slippery slopes, compounding growth and multiplier effects are nature laws, and while we mere mortals may not have an intuitive grasp of these phenomena, their impact is too real to be ignored. Thankfully, the Bible has done the work to spell them out. While it may not be intuitive to grasp, attempting to debate these biblical truths is like being given a four-figure table for your math computations, but choosing to ignore it and work out the math yourself — you’d get to the same point, perhaps with a clearer picture, after a long arduous journey.
I hope that this little PB & J (Push Button and Jottings) reminds and inspires you to be more deliberate in curbing the “little excesses,” eliminating the little foxes and being more courageous in taking those “little” faith steps today. Who knows, they just may end up sounding like a noise of chariots, the noise of a great host, and set things in motion for an abundant supply and a fulfilment of prophecy.
Have a Blessed Week full of Little Big Steps!
IG/Twitter: @_it0r0
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The Powerpoint Tribe.
