November 2009 ~ United Devotion

Do you ever wonder about the consequences of your seemingly meaningless actions? Ever wonder how the world would be different if you hadn't got out of school a little late, putting you in the moment and position to be asked directions from someone who, otherwise, would have not arrived at his destination on time and not have met the people he met on the way there? How did he influence them? How did you influence him? How did he influence you? How had your getting out late of school trigger a series of events that led to whatever might have happened? And what factors and events led up to your teacher keeping you in class a little longer?

In middle school (and I think early high school), every time I signed off from AIM, I would type "God bless!" and "good night!" to almost everyone on my buddylist, even if I wasn't chatting with them at the moment. Years later, in my first year of college, I met an old friend again at my Berkeley church by chance. We haven't seen each other or talked for four, five years. He asked me if he remembered that one time, long ago, when I told him "God bless!" that one night, randomly. Of course, I really didn't. Perhaps, just a little but vaguely. After all, I told everyone that nearly every night for a year or so. I couldn't really recall which people I typed that to. He said that he had happened to have a really bad day and was feeling really down. And, somehow, randomly, I had typed him a "God bless!" He said that it had completely made his day. He said that it had made him feel totally better. He still remembered. He said thank you.

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Do you ever wonder how that one kind action, that one mean word impacted the people around you? Do you ever wonder how it transformed people's thoughts and lives? What do you think might have occurred as a result of that one day when you decided you were too tired to care about anything and, thus, said and did things that you normally would never do. How did that negatively affect the world?

So many say they want to live lives of significance, of purpose. They want to change the world; they want to leave behind legacies. They want to look back at their lives on their deathbeds and think, wow, look at what I've done! Look at how much I helped the world. Does it ever occur to them that, perhaps, changing the world only takes one little push? Do they know that just a smile to the bus driver, a gentle "good morning" to the bum on the street, a second to stop and give directions to a wary traveler, an extra dollar left for tip, and an offhand word of praise to a classmate could change the way the world turns?

Do you ever wonder how much good and bad consequences may have resulted from your smallest, most thoughtless actions?

In Matthew 14, there's a story that all of you are familiar with.

Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand
¹³When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. ¹⁴When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.
¹⁵As evening approached, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a remote place, and it's already getting late. Send the crowds away, so they can go to the villages and buy themselves some food."
¹⁶Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."
¹⁷"We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish," they answered.
¹⁸"Bring them here to me," he said. ¹⁹And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. ²⁰They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. ²¹The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.

In this, we can see that God is truly a God of small things. Our smallest offerings, our smallest actions. these things God can multiply. He can take 5 loaves and 2 fish to feed over 5 thousand people!

So often we are told to show our friends the Gospel, to bring them to God. But how do we start? What if they laugh or make fun of us? It's scary and you're afraid you don't know the answers and they don't seem to want to listen. But God sees every little thing and every little action, God can do great things with. So by just being nice, smiling, sharing food and sharing advice, actually living out God's Word in your life, God can use all these things to do His work.

That doesn't mean that you just only do these things, but as messengers of the Gospel, you need to pay attention to these things.

Hebrews 12:1 "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."

Don't underestimate the power of a smile. And certainly, do not underestimate God's power.

I read this from a book called, The Irresistible Revolution. I thought that it was an apt and wonderful depiction of Christian life.

"Once, there was a small group of kids who decided to go to a park in the middle of the city, and dance and play, laugh and twirl. As they played in the park, they thought that maybe another child would pass by and see them. Maybe that child would think it looked fun and even decide to join them. Then maybe another one would. Then maybe a businessman would hear them from his skyscraper. Maybe he would look out the window. Maybe he would see them playing and lay down his papers and come down. Maybe they could teach him to dance. Then maybe another businessman would walk by, a nostalgic man, and he would take off his tie and toss aside his briefcase and dance and play. Maybe the whole city would join the dance. Maybe even the world. Maybe... Regardless, they decided to enjoy the dance."

What do you think?

United Devotion

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