Greater Things (South Africa Journal, January 12, 2011)

On the outskirts of the township of Capricorn you will find what looks like a small, unimpressive rectangular building. Next to it is a small, unimpressive slab of pavement. Both are contained by a small, unimpressive fence, with an unimpressive gate topped with unimpressive razor wire. Things aren't always what they appear. Permanent buildings are not allowed to be built in Capricorn indefinitely, so what appears to be a building is, in reality, several storage containers with a wall filling in the gaps between, with a makeshift roof to protect the interior from the elements. I can tell you right now that on any given day, you would pass it by without noticing or recalling a single, unimpressive detail.

We are surrounded by big. Bombarded with it, seduced with it. We flaunt it, we work our whole lives to achieve it, and we will in some cases die for it. Yet we fail to realize that we die without it.

It's difficult to even express the ways in which one's perspective changes when you have caught a glimpse of what real life is all about and how it feels to live it. It takes hold of you like a drug. Sometimes you wonder why you put yourself through it, but again and again you find yourself craving more. You can't go back to the way things were. I find myself caught up in something that is not bigger, rather, something that is greater, than I could ever imagine. Things that in pursuit of something else, I may have passed by. The affection of a child. Late night conversations about life and faith. Friends that have become family. The more I experience of this journey, the more I realize that it is the little things that become big things. The unimpressive, the insignificant--becomes greater.

On any given day, you might pass the Capricorn center and not even know it. But had you walked by today, you may have heard the sound of hundreds of tiny voices lifted to heaven. The sound of praise amidst loss and suffering, hope amidst abuse, and dependence amidst poverty. The sound of triumph and joy carried by the wind, singing, "Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city . . . "

“Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

-Robert Brault