No Big Deal

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4:6 NIV

The good advice to “not sweat the small stuff ” is often followed up with the reminder that in the grand scheme of things it’s all “small stuff.” And yet still, we are often rankled by petty concerns or by things that are just not a big deal. We should keep the phrase “no big deal” close at hand for all the times when things don’t work out the way we want them to. A broken coffee cup or a flat tire is never met with gladness, and yet neither is no big deal. Likewise, most problems we face in our daily lives are more like a broken glass or a flat tire than a terminal illness. As a good friend of mine likes to say, “no more trouble than a cloudy day.” Keep the phrase “no big deal” handy but realize that when we use it to describe other people’s problems they may beg to differ. When faced with someone else’s problems it is better to show them that it’s easily remedied. The flat tire on someone else’s car may be a big deal for them because they don’t have a spare tire or a jack in their car, and the broken coffee cup they are fretting over may hold some special meaning because it was given to them by their mother. Short of helping them to get their tire fixed or convincing them that they shouldn’t be so attached to material things that are liable to break, we should probably hold our tongues. And still, it’s no big deal. – Christopher Simon