“If you live a life of watching and waiting, you will know what kind of call you have. You are not called to solve every problem in the world. Jesus was not called to go all over the world. He was called to be faithful to his own people. Every human being has a call. I work with mentally handicapped people. Sometimes I spend hours with one person, and we barely speak. Does that help people in Bosnia, does that help people in Northern Ireland, does it help people in Somalia? I don’t know, but I think it does. I think that when I am faithful to one person who is given to me, when I am convinced that’s my vocation, then I am doing more than when I am anxiously trying to put out all the fires all over the world. And that gives me peace” (Henri Nouwen).

Sometimes, the greatest gift you can give to the world is to be faithful to your call right where you are. You can do your job well. You can raise your family well. You can serve and minister to those in your small circle where you live, work, and play.

God didn’t call you to fix every problem and right every wrong. He called you to be faithful in a little, so He can trust you with more. He’s called you to be faithful with five talents, so that He can one day trust you with ten.

Sometimes, faithfulness looks a lot like showing up every single day. It looks a lot like not giving up, despite nothing ever seeming to change and the future still looking so far away. But if you show up and stay prayed up, then God will show up. God can take your meager little offerings, bless them, and multiply them to touch the lives of so many more people than you ever could have imagined.

But it all starts in being faithful with your two fishes and five loaves. It starts with being faithful with your small mustard seed. And the beautiful part is that it’s never too late to start.