The Small Stuff

I saw this intriguing article over the weekend.  The writer speaks of a charter school in Chicago where the students must pay a fine for violating even the smallest rules.  Here’s how the atmosphere at the school is described:

A sense of order and decorum prevails at Noble Street College Prep as students move quickly through a hallway adorned with banners from dozens of colleges. Everyone wears a school polo shirt neatly tucked into khaki trousers. There’s plenty of chatter but no jostling, no cellphones and no dawdling.

This is an urban school–and urban schools in Chicago have nearly daily fights breaking out among the students.  There is only about one fight per year on each campus that is a part of this charter school system.

I think they are on to something profound.  While we talk about not sweating the small stuff, sometimes paying attention to the small stuff is literally life-changing. These schools fine students for having untied shoelaces or chewing gum, for unbuttoned shirts and for carrying cellphones.

Certainly such an atmosphere can become deadening–but, done properly, it is also liberating.  The school is fining students for tiny actions that show disrespect for themselves and for others, and so pushes behavior that is respectful.  It is paying off in terms at both educational atmosphere and educational achievement.

Now, link this to our spiritual lives.  What if, during Lent, we paid special attention to the small things that either show respect–or disrespect–to the Holy One and to the world created by the Holy One.  Things like care in language use, time set aside for worship and daily prayer, offering gracious responses when less gracious moments come our way.

The little things really do matter.