Too Big to Succeed

Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – July 13, 2018

Then they said, ‘Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.’ So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.  Genesis 11:4, 8

What is my motive for wanting bigger and better? Is it to make a name for myself or for the glory of God? Indeed, bigger is not always better; in fact, bigger can get in the way of what is best. When a bigger organization competes with being a better organization, I have to ask, “What am I missing?” Has the transactional become priority over the relational?

We see this in churches when their primary goal becomes the building of buildings over the building of disciples. Yes, there are plenty of good reasons to expand capacity, such as the construction of educational facilities to teach God’s Word. However, space expansion is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Keep people the priority as you produce more.

So we ask a sobering question. “Are we using debt or any other means of manipulation just to become bigger but to miss God’s best?” If becoming bigger drives your life, your work, your home, or your church, then you are setting yourself up for failure. God is not pleased when bigness overshadows the simple, like loving people in their sin. Love is large to the Lord. His heart is for bigness to be a result, not a reason for your productive work.

Moreover, there are times that becoming bigger is not His will. In other words, growing larger is failure to follow God’s best. It may mean giving away more, instead of building a bigger home that becomes a memorial to man. Scattering, not gathering, is God’s way. So let go of the good so God can make it His best. If you hold tight to control, then He will pry open your hand of distrust and give to others He trusts.

Jesus gave us a clear warning to avoid building bigger buildings for our recognition: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:16–21).

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