Our Stories
One At A Time
By Abigail Short | posted 05/15/2008
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough." (Matthew 13:33b NIV)
One foot in front of the other. One day at a time. How does the journey of a thousand miles begin? With a single step. It's a familiar concept, and we know it works, but some days it feels a lot more like plodding along than progressing on a journey.
That's the problem with life, isn't it? It's just so daily. I wake up in the morning and I mean to do great things, but I get to bedtime and wonder where the day went.
Then I hear about an organization like Invisible Children (www.invisiblechildren.com), which was founded by three college filmmakers who went to Africa on a whim and came back with a mission. In less than five years, the movement they started has been joined by a million people and become an astounding philanthropic organization dedicated not only to helping the war-weary people of Uganda but to actually ending the war. Wow! While I am thrilled at the difference made by Invisible Children, its story is also, to be honest, a little daunting. I feel like I can't do anything that big. It's true that the founders didn't set out to create a worldwide movement, but they had the vision to carry it off. When do I get to start making a difference?
My notion that only big differences count was challenged by Brian McLaren's book The Secret Message of Jesus. In it, he asserts that people choosing to live out Jesus' message of the Kingdom of God on a daily basis will be the only thing that ultimately changes the world. This idea was both a revolutionary concept and a great comfort to me. You see, I'm a details person. I don't think I'll ever bring about worldwide change with an idea. But being nice to people - that seems within my reach. I can understand it, I can see myself doing it.
My first instinct was to feel like that was copping out, trying to make myself feel better about lacking influence. McLaren gave me permission to believe that small actions matter. Imagine, he said, a small business whose owner treats her employees and customers with respect. At first, they don't realize why her shop feels different, but soon they learn her secret - she's living out the Kingdom of God. Then they start doing it, too. They stop viewing their clients as people trying to rip them off but instead treat them as dignified people who deserve a fair deal. Imagine, he continued, what would happen if this started reaching the government. Civil servants and government workers alike take responsibility for their own actions. Imagine how foreign policy could change if we worried less about our GDP and more about the welfare of all the world's people, our brothers and sisters. It sounds impossible, and indeed, on our own we could never achieve it. But this is the very business of the Holy Spirit and the "secret" message of Jesus - changing not just individual lives, but the world.
So go out and make a difference! If you can make a huge impact, by all means, do so! But if you find yourself with limited time or energy or ideas, don't give up. Make all the small differences you can and know that they're adding up...one heart at a time.
Abigail can be reached at abigail@DaughterOfLight.com.
