What makes a good food dish a special food dish?  A little somethin'.  The basics are always necessary to cook a good dish, but it is always the "little somethin' " that puts it over the top.  Every great cook knows this.  The secret ingredient, the special order of preparation, the careful attention to amounts of spices or merging of flavors - often these are the "little somethins" that make for an extra special dinning experience.  These are the things that in themselves seem insignificant, but when they are added to the process of cooking, transform the dish without calling attention to themselves.  They are often subtle.  Sometimes they are just a moment of extra attention to details that disappear in the whole presentation, but set it apart from the ordinary.  Sometimes it is just the fact that what was added was not overdone, and especially this would apply to cooking time.  Just watch one cooking contest show and listen to the judges and you get this reality reinforced over and over again.  The winner always has a "little somethin' " extra going on in their ingredients, in their preparation,  or in their presentation. 

What does this have to do with our life in Christ?

Ephesians 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The New King James Version.

In our life in Christ Jesus, we need all the basics of faith, love, and hope established to live good and fruitful lives.  And it is good to have powerful and eventful transformation times with the Lord. However, shaking transformational events, amazing overwhelming interactions with God and dynamic faith releasing revelations (as important and significant as they are) can often become the standard where by we judge whether or not God is really working or moving in His people.  And certainly the Bible is full of these kinds of things.  However, I think we may be overlooking the reality that often times the Lord just wants to do or add "a little extra somethin' " in our lives, and by Him doing this, He makes a wonderful difference in how we live.  Let's not underestimate the value of the detail or specific personal adjustment He may want to bring.  Here is an example that happened to me recently.

On the way to worship God with the church on Sunday morning I have a short-cut route that I like to take.  However, as I left our home, the Lord impressed me to go another way - it is longer, takes more gas, and is less scenic.  But it was a strong drawing and so I followed that route.  As you can see this was just "a little somethin' " that the Lord was asking me do to.  But it set me in line through a simple obedience mode with something the Lord wanted to talk to me about.  In my mind I am thinking, I wonder why the Lord is having me do this?  He answered me with, "You don't always need to know why, you just need to obey what I am telling you to do."  So I entered into the rest that comes when you know you are doing what the Lord has asked you to do, even in the very small and seemingly insignificant things.  But the rest of the story unfolded at church, when the Lord began to do some extra-ordinary things.  I am convinced that I would have missed the value of what He wanted to do in the church through me, if I had discarded the "little extra somethin' " He did with me earlier that morning.  

I want to encourage you to value the "little extra somthins" that He does in your life.  Pay attention to Him in these things.  And please know that His workmanship in your life is not always in the monumental, but also in the subtle.  The "little exra somethin' " the Lord  does for you today will lead to something wonderful and life giving.