Little Things Can Have a HUGE Impact

Photo by Dean A. Johnson

In his book, Messy Spirituality, Michael Yaconelli tells the story of small, tiny, acts by people that have a HUGE impact. 

During the last months of World War II, the British conducted daily bombing raids over Berlin.  The bombers would take off from an airstrip in England and fly surrounded by smaller fighter planes whose job it was to keep German fighters from attacking the bombers, which were easy targets.

One night after a successful bombing raid, as they were heading for the safety of England, the bombers were attacked by a large group of German fighter planes. Somehow, during the dogfight, one bomber found itself flying alone with no protection, and suddenly, a German fighter appeared out of nowhere.  The crew of the bomber watched as the German plane moved closer and closer, until finally, it was in range.  They prepared for the worst and watched helplessly as tracer bullets began spitting from the fighter.  Bullets whizzed by them, over and under until THUD!  THUD!  THUD!  THUD!  THUD!  Five bullets slammed into the fuselage of the bomber near the gas tank.  The crew braced for the explosion, but nothing happened.  They could see fuel pouring from the bullet holes, but there was no explosion.  Miraculously, they were able to make it back to their base and get off the plane.

A few hours after they had landed, one of the mechanics showed up in the crew’s barracks.  He had found five bullets inside the fuel tanks, crumpled but not exploded.  He handed them to the pilot.  The pilot carefully opened the shells and to the crew’s amazement found each one empty of gunpowder.  Inside one was a tiny wad of paper.  When he unfolded the paper, he found a note which read,

“We are Polish POWs – forced to make bullets in factory.  When guards do not look, we do not fill with powder.  Is not much, but is best we can do.  Please tell family we are alive.

The note was signed by four Polish prisoners of war.

Five tiny bullets, out of millions and millions of bullets made during the war, made all the difference for the crewman of a British bomber...

…Spirituality is about doing the tiny work of God, little acts, small responses to God’s presence in our lives…Tiny becomes huge when Jesus is involved.”  (Michael Yaconelli, Messy Spirituality (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002), 108-109. 

Every day, consider how your small acts of today can impact someone else tomorrow.  With God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are asked to perform small, tiny, even miniscule acts of kindness to others just as Jesus did as He walked in the small area of the world in Jerusalem.  As Michael Yaconelli says, “Tiny becomes HUGE when Jesus is involved.”