God never sees our stories as small

I was driving last night to pick us up something to eat. I was listening to the song Humble and Kind by Tim McGraw. I find myself listening to it a lot these days.

I got lost in the lyrics. You know how sometimes you mindlessly sing along, maybe making believe it's you under the bright lights, unaware really of a single word you're singing. But other times, maybe in a step back toward reality, you get taken in by the lyrics and the words take you on a ride.

Last night, I was riding the words.

And with each word I found myself wondering, what was he thinking when he wrote those words. What was going on in his life - where was his heart - when such a beautiful song was born?

As often happens, curiosity got the best of me. And I discovered Tim McGraw didn't write this song at all.

A woman named Lori McKenna wrote it for her 5 children. One morning, after watching the last of them get on a school bus, she sat down at her dining room table and wrote it for her kids. She asked herself, if I could give one message to them, what would it be. And it was this song.

Then she sent the song to McGraw. He loved it. He sang it and made it a number one hit. The song actually inspired a "humble and kind" movement with his fans.

I watched an interview with McKenna talking about the song. She said, “The fact that Tim took this song that I saw as a prayer or a little list of things I wanted my kids to know and saw it as something bigger than that was amazing to me. He’s taken it to levels that I don’t have the ability to do.”

Talk about humble. Talk about faith.

I got goosebumps.

Because that's us, you know. We have what we think are such simple stories. Stories for us and our kids, maybe for our little church or the small group of people we work or run with. Maybe it's the group of little ones that we teach. We all have our songs.

But God never sees them as small. God sees every one of our stories as his opportunity to climb the charts, have the bright lights shining on him as he sings to the world the songs we write. The lives we live.

I see so many people out there doing small and humble things these days. I encourage you to keep doing them. I encourage you to never do them with being a star in mind, but always be mindful that God sees you as a star for doing them.

I know God has probably been in the front row of many Tim McGraw concerts. But as he stood and applauded for this particular song, a sell out crowd screaming in the background, I think maybe God smiled as he remembered a mom with her pen and paper at a dining room table, watching a bus pull away.

The mom who was humble and kind.

(I'm including links to two versions of this song. The first one is the writer Lori McKenna singing the song she wrote. The second is Tim McGraw singing it. I listened to them in that order this morning. The humble mom singing to her kids. The star, taking her prayer to the world).

Lori McKenna: https://youtu.be/iw9b3mhsOHg


Tim McGraw: https://youtu.be/awzNHuGqoMc