Continuing the theme of Step by Step from yesterday, my friend Ray told me something he’d learned from his friend Mark who was a missionary to Muslim countries for decades. Mark described the evangelism process to churches in this country by setting up a balance scale with a weight on one side and an empty container on the other. The scale was tipped toward the weight, and Mark’s objective was to tip the scale the other way.

Mark described the step-by-step process this way:

I live in an apartment building, and my neighbor comes out. I say hello. That’s one sugar cube into the container. The next time I see him, I say hello again–that’s another sugar cube. Soon, I get his name: a sugar cube goes into the container. When I see him again, I use his name: yep, another sugar cube. Soon we have him to dinner. That’s another sugar cube. At some point, we show the Jesus movie and discuss it after. Sugar cube, sugar cube. Finally, my neighbor commits his life to Jesus.

Mark drops one more sugar cube into the container, and the balance scale tips the other way. He asks, “Which sugar cube was the most important?” Sometimes people say, “The last one, of course.” And Mark replies, “No. They’re all equally important. If it weren’t for all the preceding sugar cubes and the actions they represented, there would be no “last” sugar cube!

To use terminology we’ve discussed before, the sugar cubes, no matter how simple an action they represent, can be thought of as Holy Moments. And if enough of us did enough holy moments, we could change the world (again). It’s part of the “subversive” operation Jesus began in the manger, out of sight. As he called Mary and Joseph and later the disciples, he calls us to play some part in his grand Adventure. Each contributing our sugar cubes to tip the balance.

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” (Isaiah 28.10, NKJV)

I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God’s field in which we are working. Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. (1 Corinthians 3.6 – 9, MSG)