Trying to make sense of all the details

MICHELE MARR

When I first noticed Richard Carlson’s book, “Don’t Sweat the Small

Stuff ... and it’s all small stuff,” on a shelf at Barnes and Noble,

the title rankled me.

Then thumbing through its table of contents, many of its chapter

titles appealed to me: “Make Peace with Imperfection,” “Develop Your

Compassion,” “Don’t Interrupt Others or Finish Their Sentences” and

my favorite, “Look Beyond Behavior.”

That is, I thought, what Jesus did so well. It’s what we want

others to do for us, while we are all too often flinty about doing it

for others.

“Realize,” these pithy titles seemed to say, “You are not, after

all, the center of the universe. Your own predilections are not

simply small sometimes in the design of things, but petty.”

Still, Carlson’s premise chafed against my grain. Not that I like

to sweat, but I do, it dawned on me, have a real affection for some

small stuff. I like salt in my soup and I like it hot, unless it’s

gazpacho or borscht. I like my name spelled right. I like my

electricity on. I like my toilet to flush.

Who decides which stuff is small? Richard “It’s all small stuff”

Carlson?

Webster’s dictionary describes a detail as, “any of the small

parts that go to make up something.” So in a way, Carlson is right;

it is all small stuff, each and every part. But is none of it worth

sweating? I suppose, to paraphrase a recent president, that depends

on what the meaning of sweat is.

There’s an expression: God is in the details. Often attributed to

the French novelist Flaubert, architect Mies van der Rohe,

Michelangelo and even “God is dead” philosopher Nietzsche, it was,

roughly translated as the tagline, “Der liebe Gott steckt im Detail,”

for an art history series presented by Aby Warburg at Hamburg

University in 1925.

In more contemporary times, in what may also be a theological

statement reflecting the spirit of our times, the expression is often

replaced with “the devil is in the details.” The meaning remains the

same: details are important. We discount them at our own risk.

Recently in Barnes and Noble, I came across a new take on the

small stuff -- a small volume by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz titled,

“God Is in the Small Stuff ... and it all matters.”

Bickel and Jantz aren’t advocating worry anymore than Carlson is.

The subtitle of their book is “Stop Worrying and Invite God into the

Details of Your Life.” But where Carlson seems willing to trade his

commitment to integrity for what he sees as harmony, the authors of

“God Is in the Small Stuff” contend that “[God] cares about even the

seemingly ordinary little details of your life. Because those ‘small

things’ really matter.”

In the details, they say, is where God encourages us, challenges

us and cherishes us. The small stuff, and whatever trials travel with

it, is not to be scorned but embraced. In it are gifts God gives to

us and gifts we can give to others.

If I’d given more thought to what rankled me about “Don’t Sweat

the Small Stuff,” maybe I could have written a book. Bickel and Jantz

took the time to articulate what I only vaguely sensed. I read

Carlson’s book and thought, “Humph. Take the path of least resistance

whatever the cost.”

In contrast, Bickel and Jantz put it in plain words in their

introduction, “A popular book suggests that you don’t worry about the

small stuff. We agree, but we take exception to any idea that the

small stuff isn’t important. In fact, we want to encourage you to

closely examine and cherish the seemingly everyday, ordinary

circumstances of your life. Why? Because God is in the details of

your life. He wants to weave the everyday ‘threads’ of your life into

a divinely designed ‘tapestry.’”

Their chapter titles aren’t always as pithy as Carlson’s. Instead

of “Lower Your Tolerance to Stress,” there is “Embrace Adversity.”

Instead of “Experiment With Your Back Burner,” there is “Learn to

Read” and “Learn to Write.” Instead of “Turn Your Melodrama into a

Mellow-Drama,” there is “Character: What Happens When No One’s

Looking.” But they don’t disappoint.

Each of the 40 chapters is short, only two or three pages. Each

begins with a few words from Scripture, most of them from the New

Testament with some from Psalms and Proverbs. “Learn to Write,”

begins with these words from two Corinthians, chapter two, verse two:

“Your lives are a letter. Everyone can read it.”

Each chapter ends with a collection of proverbs dubbed, “In the

Small Stuff.” Some original and others borrowed, each proverb gathers

the gist of each chapter into a memorable bite.

“If you want to know what’s in your heart, listen to your mouth,”

offers a snapshot from chapter 11 on character development. “Be a

reader, but one who reads between the lines,” puts “Learn to Read” in

a nutshell.

The last proverb from the final chapter, “God Is in the Small

Stuff,” reads, “When you see God in the small stuff, your life

becomes more meaningful.”

It might, indeed, all be small stuff. But God is in it all.

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at michele@soulfoodfiles.com.