I was chatting with a recent college graduate recently and the subject of making a difference in the world came up. Eager to find his way of making a difference in the world, he asked me, “So, what was the first time you realized you can make a difference?”
The first time I realized I could make a difference? That’s a hard one.
I went into teaching thinking I could make a difference. In Australia I was the 6th music teacher in 6 years at the local high school. I like to think I made a difference by bringing music from something that was hated to something that was merely disliked. (sigh) I started their first brass band. Years later they did a concert tour of Europe! Who would have known? It was in Oz that I asked if I could work with the students in Special Education. That simple request turned into a thirty year career working with people with disabilities. It reminds me that when we set out to make a difference in someone’s life it often works out that they end up being the ones who make a difference in our life!
Like you, we pour ourselves into our children. We introduce them to Jesus who makes the difference in our lives. We fill them with love and hope, skills, encouragement, and values. The difference that is made is how they pour their lives into their children…and others.
Rebuilding over forty homes over eight years following Hurricane Katrina, we found that you make a difference by just by showing up and serving others. In all 150 people joined us in ten “vacation” trips to gut and rebuild homes and encourage people. Everyone on the team had different skills. Some thought they had no skills at all. Have you ever thought that? Maybe you’ve thought, “I’d like to serve but I just don’t feel qualified. I don’t know how to make a difference.” The truth is we can all make a difference in the lives of others and in our world. We only have to surrender our obsession with serving ourselves and then we find all kinds of opportunities to serve and encourage others. Some things seem impossible. One of our teams went into a house that had been flooded for weeks. The putrefying stench was so bad they quickly ran out. It was impossible to think of going back in. But with God all things are possible. They huddled in prayer and, with God’s power, went back and got the job done.
Our passion for the people of Bolivia started with sponsoring a Compassion International child. (YOU can do this too for only $38/month.) We started praying for her, her family, then her community and country. We asked God to help us see others through HIS eyes. When we visited Daniela in 2011, she showed us all the letters and photos we had sent her over the ten year period. It takes so little to make a difference in one person’s life!
The enemy would like to convince you that you have nothing to give, no special talents or gifts, no way to make a difference. But God has different plans. He gifts us in different ways so we can work together toward the same work of advancing God’s plan on earth. Paul compares it to the human body, composed of many parts but working together for a common purpose. In a time where so many are fighting against each other, striving to advance their own agenda, how we desperately need to remind ourselves of the important contribution we must make…by working together to make a difference.
It takes only one person to make a difference but it also takes us all.
Do you want to make a difference? Ask God to show you how to see people through his eyes. And then show up and be an encouragement to others.
“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6