You will have to forgive me for not remembering the story exactly, but I think even a sense of it conveys the meaning I am trying to express. It concerns the former England international Rugby Union coach, Sir Clive Woodward, and the preparation for the 2003 world cup in Australia, which England won. Woodward, apparently, was fond of drilling home to his squad the importance of the 'small things' and their part in the 'bigger picture' (my phrasing, I can't remember the exact words) , and as such encouraged his players to think differently about the significance of their actions, even at the level of training and off-the field activities. One one occasion, during a motivational talk some time in advance of the world cup itself, one of his players came in late to where the rest of the squad were assembled. Woodward didn't shout, apparently, or throw teacups (these football managers, such highly strung primadonnas..) but simply glanced at the player, before informing him that he had just cost England the world cup.
Whether this is strictly true or not I don't know, but one can imagine it containing a certain ammount of accuracy. Why was Woodward so harsh, and blatantly irrational in condemning a player for simply being five minutes late to a pep talk? Was he actually a terrible coach, with no idea how to motivate players? Was he deluded, misunderstanding at a basic level the discourse of professional sport and believing that world cups are won on the basis of punctuality? I doubt it.
I think, if the story is true, that the explanation of the coach and those who were also involved, would be rather different.
The sense I get from the story is that Woodward saw, in fact, how small things can lead to much bigger things. He saw a relation between cause and effect that went beyond simple human reasoning, and towards a holistic understanding of the way that human beings think and act.
In relating one player's lateness to the winning of the world cup, he seems, in effect to be saying that, however small and seemingly insignificant the action may seem in the moment, it may have further reaching consequences than one might have ever imagined. Especially at the level of international sport, where the dividing line between success and failure can seem so paper-thin, where every action, every small sacfifice, every extra second on the training pitch or out of the bar can be the deciding factor between victory of defeat.

And so what relevance does this story have? Well I think quite a lot. Because isn't this true also of life, in the wider sense? Our actions can have surprising consequences. What we do today, may have no consequences tomorrow, but what about the day after that, or even the one after that? How do we know that what we do today isn't the making of what we do tomorrow? That the piece of kindness done today isn't the making of something else tomorrow?
I say 'something else', because I'm not suggesting that our actions will necessarily bring expected consequences. I'm not suggesting that if I am kind to this person, then that person will be kind in turn to me. I may never be repaid for my kindness. The Bible teaches clearly that this is to be expected, in fact. I am not to be kind so that I will recieve a reward from the person that I am kind to. Sometimes of course, it may work like this, but it shouldn't be the reason that I choose to be kind in the first place. Jesus talks about the subject in Matthew 6

"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your father in heaven." (6:1)

It is clear that while such 'acts of righteousness' aren't to be done in order to gain favour with others, they are done for another reason. Jesus talks here about gaining favour with 'your father in heaven', and this, I think, is the crucial point. Doing such things has significance not because the consequences will be seen in this world, but because they will be seen in another, a world quite apart from our own. And they will be seen by another, by 'your father in heaven', as well as through human eyes. They will be seen by God. And if these acts, which are not shown or demonstrated to the world, are seen by Him, then what of all our other acts too?
Everything we do has eternal significance to God. There is nothing that we do that is irrelevant, not worthy of mention, but everything has, in fact, massive importance. It is tempting to think that certain activities and actions are spiritually less important than others; church activities of various kinds, musical worship and singing, reading the Bible, can all seem like more spiritual activities than chatting to a housemate, making a sandwich or driving to work. But in some senses, none are actually more 'spiritual' than the other. In any of those latter situations, we could be tempted by pride, greed, anger, and be led to feel that it's unimportant because we aren't engaged in spiritual activity. This isn't to deny God's grace, to claim that we must worry ourselves constantly, legalistically, that we have slipped up. But it is to give pause for thought. We are, I believe, justified by faith in Jesus Christ, not through our own percieved acts of righteousness. Yet in a sense, to deny that our actions do have eternal significance, is to be mistaken. They do. In everything that we do we shold be 'running the race' that Paul talks of in Philippians 3:

"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Fogetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:12-14)

It is this race that the Christian must keep running, must keep straining to look towards, even when it looks as if it is remote and out of sight. It is this which must be foremost in the mind each day, even when it is an effort and a trial to do so. It is this, and no less, to which we are called as followers of Jesus Christ.

RW

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