Sweat the Small Stuff!

Let’s play word association.

I say Dog. You say _____.

You say up. I say down.

Ok, those were too easy. How about this one?

I say Titanic. You say _________.

Right, Rivets!

What? You were thinking more like, iceberg? Okay, okay, so most people would probably say iceberg, but if you did, that probably means you believe the iceberg was the sole cause of the sinking of this supposedly unsinkable vessel. But that’s only half the story.

Sure, the ginormous mountain of ice (most of which was hidden from view under the dark, icy waters if the Atlantic ocean) was certainly a factor in sending hundreds and hundreds of people to a their watery graves, but it turns out that something much, much smaller was even more to blame.

Rivets.

Yep, rivets. You see, I’m a history channel buff and I love getting the low down on major events that effected lives throughout history. The sinking of the Titanic was doubly tragic because no one saw it coming. People bragged about how it was the first unsinkable vessel of its kind ever built. It could withstand anything—from raging storms to impossible rough seas to huge mountains of ice. Nothing could sink it.

Or so they thought.

Everything was built to perfection and she was assembled with great care. Except for one thing.

Those pesky rivets.

You see, the Titanic wasn’t the first ship to hit an iceberg. Many large ships up to that point in time had hit icebergs and remained largely intact. No, the Titanic sunk because of 3 million or so faulty rivets that were used ti hold the steel to the ship’s hull. Apparently, during the manufacturing of those rivets a lot of corners were cut to save costs. They used sub-standard iron to shave a miniscule amount off the overall cost. The force of sideswiping the iceberg put tremendous stress on those rivets and they cataclysmically failed—water rushed into the hull of the ship filling 5 of the supposedly impregnable sections and sealing the fate of nearly three quarters of the people on board.

All because of a very small thing called a rivet.

But there were 3 million of them and they added up to 1 major problem.

Isn’t life a lot like this?

A compromise here, cheating over there—a little white lie then another and another. You miss plan to read the Bible everyday, but start missing a few days a week—It’s just small stuff, you rationalize—no big deal…same thing with prayer and going to church regularly. No one really gets hurt though. It’s just small stuff—minor things I can work on later.

But the small stuff adds up.

And many a life has been completely compromised because no one thought to sweat the small stuff.

So I say, ‘sweat it.’ Sweat the small stuff and see it for what it can become if a whole lot of small compromises are allowed to add up.