“Little is much when God is in it.”

"Measuring Up" - Norman Rockwell

Hymn: “Little Is Much When God Is in It” – Words & Music by Kittie Louise Suffield
Tune: STEWARDSHIP (also sung to NETTLETON)

This gospel song – particularly the refrain – must have been written for those who identify with the one-talent person in the parables of Jesus… the ones who want desperately to be of service to the Kingdom, but whose mustard-seedness makes them reluctant.

When as an eighteen-year-old sophomore at Carson Newman College I sensed a ‘call’ of God in my life to enter a career in music ministry, I realized that I had limited musical gifts… at least those publicly exhibited in worship. I don’t play an instrument, and my singing voice is barely acceptable – and is certainly not sing-the-big-solo worthy! At the encouragement of some music professors, I began to follow that call through college, seminary, and forty-plus years of local church ministry.

I am living proof that blessed little talent can be used when offered to God. With a vengeance I went with the things I did well and developed my career in areas that magnified the gifts of others because I could not rely on my personal musical performance skills. Whatever successes I had along the way, they happened in spite of my inadequacies!

We need to be reminded that a little leaven when applied freely causes the whole loaf to rise.

This hymnline is a call to us “little ones” to step up and apply our meager abilities to further the kingdom, inviting the Giver of All Gifts to make the best use of whatever talents appropriated to us.


Marshall Hall sings this hymn