The Lutheran Hour
This Week on The Lutheran Hour
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May 17, 2026: "Don’t Despise Small Beginnings"
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Text: Acts 1:14
Do not despise small beginnings.
That’s the big idea behind James Clear’s best-selling book titled, Atomic Habits. James contends that changes (healthy changes, anyway) “that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.”i A friend of mine, Tim, read the book Atomic Habits, and applied it to learning Spanish.
Tim was in his forties and had neither studied nor spoke Spanish before in his life. And, honestly, I thought he was a little crazy for trying to start now. It’s hard enough to learn a new language when you’re young and your brain is malleable, but when you’re middle-aged and stuck in your ways? Why even try?
But Tim started small. Seventeen minutes a day—that’s what it would take, according to his Spanish tutor. Just 17 minutes is sufficient to become proficient, if you stick with it every day, for years. In between his daily 17-minute study sessions, he met with his tutor online, twice a week, at first. Later they cut back to once a week. Eventually, Tim did a month-long immersion trip to a language school in Mexico, which also became sort of a commitment device for him because he figured that if he had devoted a month of his life to this, it’d be harder for him quit later on.
So far, it’s been four years, and he’s still at it. Every few weeks, he might miss a study session. But the next day, he’ll make it up with 34 minutes. He wouldn’t say he’s fluent, but he’s definitely functional. Tim is who I picture in my mind when I think of this saying, “Don’t despise small beginnings.” Don’t discount them, because small habits compound over time.
So, why is Tim learning Spanish? It’s because Tim is on the compounded side of a once-despised small beginning. Tim is a follower of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And he’s a pastor, like me, which means he’s been called to be a full-time, public witness of the resurrection of Jesus. And in the place where he’s been called to do this—a rural town in Kansas with a population of about 400 people—17 percent of those people are Spanish-speakers. And Tim’s church decided that 17 percent is too many people to ignore. So, they wanted to reach out. And they asked Tim, their pastor, to lead the effort, which meant learning Spanish. It was as simple as that.
Now, step back a moment and consider how astounding this is, that some white, smalltown English-speaking farmers of mostly German heritage support and encourage their middle-aged pastor in learning a new language so that they can reach out to strangers from another culture who live nearby. Why would anyone do that? It’s because they are on the compounded side of a once-despised small beginning—a Middle-Eastern Jewish rabbi, crucified for claiming to be the Son of God, was resurrected from the dead by God because He really is who He says He is—the hope and the Savior of the world.
Now at first, it was small, easy to ignore, easy to despise. Only around 120 people believed it. But then it grew to several thousand, and it got harder to ignore and more tempting to despise. While this Jesus Movement was still relatively small, a wise observer advised those who were tempted to take their spite to the next level, he told them, “Just leave them alone, because if this plan or purpose is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to stop them. You will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
And here we are, 2,000 years later, and no one has been able to stop it. And roughly 7,000 miles west of where it started in Jerusalem (or 17,000 miles east, depending on which way you go), in rural Kansas, a pastor learns Spanish, little by little, so he can tell his neighbors about Jesus.
It’s tempting to despise small beginnings. So many hasty plans, impulsive schemes, and half-hearted efforts do amount to nothing. But self-improvement gurus point to atomic habits, and the witnesses of Jesus point to the record of history. I don’t mean the historical record of our moral and cultural superiority, because that doesn’t exist. Christians are as sick and broken as anyone else, we just know where to go to get help. We point to Jesus, to the one-of-a-kind quality of Jesus, and His ability to make something of our small beginnings.
But looking on from the outside, it is easy to despise. The book of Acts in the Bible records the beginnings. There was the inner circle of Jesus’ followers: 11 failed, cowardly men, 11 of His closest students who had abandoned Him in His hour of greatest need. There were originally 12, but one of them, the one who had betrayed Jesus, had since committed suicide.
So, it was just these 11, plus some women who had followed Jesus to Jerusalem, and as He was being crucified, watched helplessly from a distance. Along with them, there were some others on the margins, including Jesus’ own half-brothers, who had also once despised His messianic claims. All in all, it was about 120 people. They weren’t much of anything. But Jesus had risen from the dead to make them something. He said they would become His witnesses to the ends of the earth.
They didn’t need to know when, or how, exactly. It was enough for them to know that Jesus had, in fact, come from God and that He was going back to God, and one day He would return to put the world right again. And when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they would receive power to make this known to everyone.
In the meantime, they devoted themselves to reading the Bible (the Old Testament, anyway, they didn’t have a New Testament yet, because they hadn’t written it yet). So, they read and studied and talked about the Scriptures they had, devoted themselves to prayer, and as best as they knew how at the time, took small steps forward for the future into which Jesus was calling them. It wasn’t much, but it was a beginning.
Today, even though this Jesus Movement has spread to the ends of the earth, and no one has been able to stop it, because it is from God, we still might be tempted to despise it, but in a different way. Not with spite, but with apathy. People today may not be asking, “How can I stop Christianity from spreading?” but rather, “Why should I care?” Maybe they say, “Look, I’m trying to live a good life like everybody else. I’m trying to do to others as I would have them do to me, which is what Jesus taught, right? So, why do I need to get together with a group of people and read from this book about Jesus and worship Him and pray to Him as God? What difference does that make?”
Those are good questions. And I admit, on a practical level, the difference does seem small, almost negligible. Maybe it’s only a change of one degree to the left or to the right. Remember, small changes compound. For example, in flight navigation, pilots use the “1-in-60 rule,” which says that if you’re 1 degree off course—just one degree on the compass heading, one out of 360 possible degrees of travel—just one degree off course, after traveling 60 miles, you’ll be 1 mile off course.ii
For short distances, one degree doesn’t amount to much. Travel a football field, and you’ll only be 5 feet off course. But travel across the United States, and you’ll be 50 miles off course. Travel to the moon, and you’ll miss the target by 4,000 miles. Travel to the sun, just one degree off, and you’ll miss it by 1.5 million miles.
See, human beings were designed by God to go on forever. One degree off on that scale is the difference between eternal life with God versus eternal suffering in hell.That one degree of difference is the difference between letting God be God for you, versus trying to make your own god, or be your own god. It’s the difference between centering your heading on Jesus versus centering on yourself, on what you think is best. It may seem like we’re all roughly heading in the same direction, but go a few hundred more miles, and you’ll see the paths diverge. Go a few thousand, and the difference is undeniable. Go a hundred million miles, and you may be lost forever.
God sent His Son from heaven to earth, and raised Him from the dead, to bring you home. God didn’t send a set of laws or self-improvement principles to bring you along. You’re a way bigger deal to Him than that. You’re worth more to Him than that, worth dying for, in fact. So, God didn’t stand back a hundred million miles away and say, “I sure hope you can find your way.” No, God sent His Son Jesus here, to show you the way, to walk with you on the way, to be the Way.
Now, maybe you’ve walked on the way with Jesus for a while. And you know that, even now, it can be tempting to despise small beginnings. Maybe not by denying the truth of Jesus, but by doubting whether your small efforts are enough. Now, I’m not talking about any efforts for you to save yourself. No efforts on our own would ever bring us home to God. Left to our own, we’d miss the mark by a million miles, at least. I’m talking about our efforts that start after Jesus has saved us. Our small efforts to become the people Jesus has saved us to be, to complete the mission Jesus has saved us for. Those efforts are easy to despise because they look so small, so insufficient. But again, small efforts compound.
Picture it this way: you’re walking with Jesus at the base of a tall mountain. Jesus says He wants to get you to the top. But to you, the path looks too steep. “I can’t do it,” you tell Him. So, you just keep walking around the base of the mountain at the same elevation. Around and around you go. And Jesus walks with you. After a while, you tell Him, “See, I’m never going to make it to the top.”
So, Jesus says, “What if we alter our heading just one degree toward the mountain.” Just one degree? That doesn’t seem like much. Every five feet you walk—what—you go up, maybe an inch? The change is barely noticeable. But remember the 1-in-60 rule. After 60 feet, you’re a foot higher. After 60 miles, you’re in Denver. You might have to walk around that mountain a hundred times with Jesus, but eventually, He’ll get you there.iii
“Do not despise small beginnings.” The saying comes from the Bible. It’s from the Old Testament book of Zechariah the prophet. Zechariah spoke God’s Word to God’s people about 500 years before Jesus was born. It was when God’s people had returned from exile, and they had to rebuild their lives as they waited for God’s Messiah, the Christ, to come. And the going was slow. They couldn’t see what difference this was making and they didn’t feel like their small efforts would ever be enough.
So, God gave Zechariah a dream, a vision in the night, to share with them, to encourage them. Zechariah saw the obstacles against God’s people piled up like a mountain. And then he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “What are you, O mighty mountain? Before [God’s people] you will become level ground … But not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of the heavenly armies.”
Then came another message from the Lord. He said to Zechariah, “Do not despise these small beginnings, because the LORD rejoices to see the work begin ….”iv When God looks at our small beginnings, He doesn’t see what we see. God sees small change compounded into eternity. God sees the baby steps of His children in whom He delights. God sees the mural He’s making from our broken mosaics to form the perfect picture of His Son, Jesus.
My friend, Pastor Tim, says his first sermon in Spanish was 372 words. And it took a long time to write. To preach it—that took all of three-minutes. And it was all about Jesus. That was two and a half years ago. And since then, every Sunday, after he leads the morning worship service in English, he comes back at 6 p.m. to lead the Spanish service, followed by a fellowship meal afterwards. Tim says the fellowship meal is the most important thing they do. Not because what happens in worship is less important. But because everything important that happens in worship is not done by them, but by God—even with a three-minute sermon.
So far, after two and a half years, the average attendance at the Spanish service has been about 14. But that’s just the average. Sometimes 24 people show up. And at the Quinceañera they celebrated, a worship service followed by an all-day party celebrating a girl’s fifteenth birthday—70 people came, but I don’t think Pastor Tim figured that into the average. He did, however, factor in the three services when only one person came. And the two services when no one showed up. Those didn’t help the average. But he still prepared a sermon, so it wasn’t a total loss. He got to work on his Spanish.
Besides, God doesn’t work on averages, but through the accumulative. Tim says his sermons are up to a thousand words now, and his people tell him that his Spanish is “Bueno.”
Helen Keller—who was struck blind and deaf by a disease she had contracted as a toddler, but went on to become an influential author, speaker, and advocate for those with disabilities—Helen once said, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”v And so, we go about our duties as God’s people. They are small, but noble, because God delights to see His children take their next step. And He rejoices to see the work begin and He promises that our labor won’t be in vain.
Pastor Tim tells me there’s a Spanish proverb he’s learned. It says, Poco a poco se va lejos, which means, “Little by little, one goes far.” Tim is not sure how far this ministry will go. He said he wouldn’t give himself permission to quit until they tried it for at least three years. Last Sunday, a new guy showed up at the service. He’d lived in town for about three years, but Tim had never met him before. Apparently, the man had learned about the service on the internet. He didn’t speak any English, but he came in early, a few minutes before the service, with his phone open to Google Translate, to make a small request.
The man made some sounds that he hoped would be understood. He said, “I am here and would like to hear you talk about Jesus.” A few years ago, the task would have been impossible. But today, thank God, Tim figured he could handle it. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
i James Clear, Atomic Habits, 6.
ii Northstar Aviation References, “The 1-in-60 Rule.” Accessed on April 8, 2026 at https://northstarvfr.com/blogs/news/the-1-in-60-rule-in-aviation-how-it-helps-with-flight-navigation?srsltid=AfmBOop723FttA4DmnNApfKI0w6LCLtgUTV7xRrEUBQuvy1h06ZjYyyk
iii A version of this illustration comes from Antone Roundy, “A Mere One-Degree Difference,” White Hat Crew Blog. Accessed on April 9, 2026 at https://whitehatcrew.com/blog/a-mere-one-degree-difference/
iv The Hebrew text of Zechariah 4:10 is open to a variety of translations. The New King James Version renders it: “For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven [eyes of the LORD] rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel [which indicates that the work of rebuilding the temple is beginning]. They [the “seven lamps” mentioned in Zechariah 4:2] are the eyes of the Lord, which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth.” Since the “seven lamps” are symbolic of “the eyes of the Lord,” we can conclude that it is the Lord himself who rejoices to see the work begin. Thus, the New Living Translation (“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin …”) is not a word-for-word translation, but a faithful, dynamic equivalent.
v “Hall of Honor Inductee: Helen Adams Keller,” U.S. Department of Labor. Accessed on April 7, 2026 at https://www.dol.gov/general/aboutdol/hallofhonor/2010_kellerReflections for May 17, 2026
Title: Don’t Despise Small BeginningsNo reflection segment this week.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“This Is the Day” by John A. Behnke. (© 2025 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
“How Firm a Foundation” arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
“Christ Is the World’s Redeemer” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.