Are You A Big Fish in A Small Pond Or A Small Fish in A Big Pond?
You’ve no doubt heard the question posed before, “Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond?”
This question generally presupposes certain limits, or parameters, on the definition of small and big. In the minds of most folks, a city might be a small pond, and the world might be a big pond.
Likewise, a mayor of a city may be a small fish, while the President of a nation might be a big fish.
Of course, if one’s thoughts are limited to power, prestige, and possessions, or kingdoms, planets, or even our universe, we can easily quantify what seems to be big or small.
But what if your thoughts are limiting themselves? Or what if your perspective of what is big is actually small?
🐜 The Ant
Consider this analogy. You’ve probably had an ant wandering around in your house at some point. To an ant, your house may seem to be his world. The house is vast and immense, compared to the ant’s relative size. Were your small ant to wander outside his “world” and set off to explore your entire state, he might feel he had entered the realm of his universe. Yet you know how simple and small the ant is, and how minuscule his thoughts are, when compared with the “bigness” of your own knowledge and understanding.
I wonder if God at times looks at His grandest creation, you and me, and He searches for that small “ant” that has discovered the grandeur of His Creator? Could it be that God is looking for the man (and woman) who is no longer striving to be a big fish or a small fish; rather, such a man is content and fulfilled pursuing His Creator and seeking to simply bring glory to the One who gave him the very breath of life?
Because of these truths, the following verses might take on new meaning, since a “gatekeeper in the house of God” would be the biggest fish in the biggest pond, you and I could ever be.
“A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in you.” Psalms 84:10–12
There’s an old song that goes:
This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
🎯 Aspire for More in 2019
So what do you aspire for, or to? Is it to simply be a fish in a pond, no matter the size of either?
Don’t set your sights so low.
Why not aspire for something bigger, grander, unlimited, and eternal in nature? Why not make 2019 the year you become a “gatekeeper,” in God’s house?
“And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?” Matthew 16:26
Live Free!
Lyrics to “This World is Not My Home” (Jim Reeves)
This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven’s not my home then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
I have a loving mother just over in gloryland
And I don’t expect to stop until I shake her hand
She’s waiting now for me in heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
Oh lord you know I have no friend like you
If heaven’s not my home Then lord what will I do
The angels beckon me From heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home In this world anymore