Some people who aren’t really that big like to feel big. But the only way they can feel big is if they migrate to and inhabit very small places. This is known as the Big Fish/Little Pond Syndrome.

I apply this to Christians who look myopically at those verses in Scripture showing human beings doing, believing, accomplishing. They will open fold-out lawn chairs and sit all day in these verses. But these verses are only half the story. They are only one perspective: the relative perspective. That is, these verses show humans in relation to one another, but not to God.

The place where Christians will never even enter—let alone sit down in—are those Scriptural locations teaching us the absolute viewpoint. I’m talking about verses telling us WHY why some people are doing, believing, and acting, while others are not. The reason, of course, is God. It is the sovereign control of God over His creation. He is the Potter, creation is the clay.

We read about such an absolute viewpoint, for instance, in Romans, chapter 9, also known as the sovereignty of God chapter. You will find no Christians stretching out and relaxing in this chapter. It mystifies them and they hate it. If they are here, they are only peeking in the door and can only look sideways at certain critical passages and give these passages lip service. They don’t even desire to understand what is occurring in Romans 9 because they realize instinctively that such verses as Romans 9:16 ("It is not of him who is racing or willing, but of God") take the absolute credit for their works, their beliefs, and their accomplishments, away from them and give it to God.

This makes them feel small. But again, they don’t like to feel small. So they quickly migrate back to the small places, to the relative verses where they can feel important.

This principle is as true as gravity and I have never seen it work any other way with the gaggle of unbelievers known as Christians.