I don’t know about you but, for me, whenever I go for long walks or hiking (which isn’t very often), I sometimes become overwhelmed by the length of the journey. Usually, what goes through my mind is, “how much longer?” I tend to look at the finish line first or the mountain I need to climb and, quite honestly, it can become too much sometimes. I suspect that each of us feels that way at one time or another in our lives.
I remember there was one hike I went on years ago with a youth group. It wasn’t an extremely long hike, maybe a couple of miles or so. It just seemed longer because of the large group we were trying to keep on the same path along our journey. About halfway through our trek I noticed the heel of my foot began hurting and was getting progressively worse. I stopped for a moment and checked out my shoe, but couldn’t find anything that would be causing the pain. So, I continued on with the group until we finished. By the time we reached our destination, the heel of my foot was bright red and tremendously sore. After taking a water break and resting some, I looked at my shoe once more and found a tiny pebble wedged in between the insole and the shoe itself. It was so small; I had not seen it before.
As Christians, I would encourage you to spend the week examining the small pebbles in your own life. It is the small things in your life or testimony that make a huge difference in your Christian walk. No one ever tripped over the mountain itself; it is the small pebbles that cause the pain.