Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:07] Hey everybody, Pastor Chuck Allen, back with another weekday podcast. And today I want to talk about something that you're probably not going to hear many of any pastors talk about. And that's a fascinating line from Carl Jung.
[00:00:20] Talking about Carl Jung. J U N G Carl Jung, kind of the offshoot, well known psychiatrist from, you know, the tree from Freud.
[00:00:30] He once said, and let me quote, in all chaos there is a cosmos and all disorder, a secret order. End quote.
[00:00:40] There's another idea threaded through Jung's work, one that's quieter, almost easy to miss, that the small things matter more than we think.
[00:00:51] Not the big, dramatic, life altering moments, but the once in a lifetime breakthroughs.
[00:00:57] The subtle choices, the daily patterns, the tiny shifts inside of a person's soul. Now just imagine for a moment sitting across from Carl Jung, earliest 20th century psychiatrist, and across from him a 21st century pastor. And the conversation turns to this idea.
[00:01:16] What do you think, sir? Actually changes a life? And Young says it's the unnoticed things, the habits between awareness, the inner movements, which we dismiss.
[00:01:27] And then quoting Jesus, the pastor throws this surprising thing in. He doesn't disagree.
[00:01:35] In Luke 16 he says, Jesus said, if you're faithful in the little things, you'll be faithful in the large ones. Little things, not impressive things, not platform sized things, little things.
[00:01:48] And this is where the conversation, I bet, would have gotten interesting. Because we live in a world obsessed with scale.
[00:01:55] Bigger reach, bigger impact, bigger response, bigger followers, bigger results.
[00:02:00] We tend to believe that transformation comes from something that has to be massive.
[00:02:06] But both Jung and Jesus point to another direction. They say pay attention to what seems small because that's where everything is actually happening. Just think about it. A single thought you repeat every day quietly shapes how you see yourself and, and others.
[00:02:25] A small act of kindness interrupts someone's entire narrative, maybe about the whole world.
[00:02:32] A moment of honesty begins to dismantle years of pretending.
[00:02:37] These aren't headline moments, but they are forming something.
[00:02:41] Jung would call it the shaping of the psyche. Jesus would call it the formation of our heart.
[00:02:48] Same ground, different language. Jesus tells this story in Matthew chapter 13. He says, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants. It grows into a tree, small seed, large tree. But don't miss it. The miracle is not just in the growth, the miracles in the beginning. Because the kingdom doesn't arrive fully formed. It starts small, almost invisible.
[00:03:18] And that, that, my friend, that can be pretty frustrating because we want the Finished version. We want clarity, breakthrough resolution. We want it all laid out before us.
[00:03:29] But Jesus keeps bringing us back to the seed, back to the small beginning, back to the unnoticed choice. And Jung would probably nod here in the conversation, because psychology, what we repeat, we become.
[00:03:44] Not what we intend, not what we promise, but what we practice.
[00:03:48] So those small things, they're not small. They're directional. They're setting the trajectory of your life.
[00:03:54] Paul echoes this in Galatians 6, 9. He says, so let's not get tired of doing what is good, and at just the right time. We'll reap a harvest of blessings if we don't give up. Do you see the tension there?
[00:04:07] You don't see the harvest right away. You don't feel. Feel the impact immediately. But something is happening beneath the surface in the soil of your life.
[00:04:17] Every quiet prayer, every restrained reaction, every moment you choose peace over anxiety, it's forming something. And this is where the conversation, I bet, turned personal, assuming that it actually happened. But most of us overlook the very things that are shaping us. We dismiss them because they feel too small to matter. But what if? What if the five minutes you spend in stillness today matters more than the hour you spent worrying? What if the single encouraging word you offer carries more weight than you realize?
[00:04:49] What if choosing trust just for today begins to rewire something deep within you that's not dramatic, but it is overwhelmingly powerful. Because the kingdom of God doesn't just arrive. It grows. It grows quietly, steadily. It grows through all the small things. And. And maybe that's the invitation today. So don't underestimate what feels insignificant. Don't rush past what feels ordinary. Because God is often doing his deepest work in the places you're most tempted to ignore.
[00:05:21] So take that small step. Send the text, say the prayer, choose the better thought. Show up again and again and again. Not because it's big, but because it's faithful. And according to Jesus Christ, that's where the kingdom begins, right there in the small things. And it's already growing, my friend. What a beautiful way to know. You don't have to carry the massive weight today. You just stay faithful in the small things. And God honors that. God bless you. Thanks for joining me on another weekday podcast.
