There is something that sounds grand and important about the term ‘making a difference’. As we go through school and then grow up, we nurture dreams of one day making a difference in the world around us. We have thoughts of millions of people testifying tearfully about how we have touched their lives. I’ve spoken to many young people who have stated amazing intentions of building schools, shelters for abused women and children, hospitals and academies in the future. I myself have verbalized a dream of .
In reflecting on this, however, I saw some little red flags come up to warn me about my pattern of thinking and they startled me. I hope they startle you too so that, together, we can get real and start to act before it’s too late and we are singing sad songs of regret, wondering how we came to the end of our lives and never achieved any of the things we wanted to. More importantly, I hope they will help us check our motives.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with thinking big. In fact, a vision that involves ‘making a difference’ is of paramount importance if we are to live fulfilled lives. A life void of giving is, most times, an empty and meaningless one. But often, I have come to realize, we neglect the possibility that making a difference can be done in very simple ways. We have a tendency of looking very far away for places to make a difference when literally right under our noses there are people crying out for help.
This hit home for me fairly painfully quite recently. I had some old clothes that I wanted to give away and, for some reason, I had it set in my mind that I would go give them to some guys in a neighborhood that is about 20 minutes away from where I live. Yet I had neglected to consider the homeless men who come to look for food just outside my gate every Monday, scrounging through the bin. Perhaps they needed those clothes too. But that wasn’t the end of it. As I carried the bag full of clothes to the gate, I was met by a gardener – a pleasant man whom I see everyday and wave smiley greetings to. Curious to know what I was carrying, he stopped me. I then told him I had some old clothes I wanted to take to the men waiting at the gate of my house. Quite desperately, he told me to wait until he had chosen some clothes first. That broke my heart. Here I was, rushing to the aid of strangers when someone right within my reach needed what I had to offer as if speeding off to be a ‘hero’ somewhere far away would make the act more significant somehow.
Do you have a big dream of making a difference? Start by making a difference in the life of the people (or even just one person) closest to you. Open your eyes to the needs of the few and the near and you will find that your dream of helping the many who are in distant lands will happen. If we handle the small things well, the big things will come easily. Maybe it’s time we stop trying to complicate things and keep it simple.
The process of checking our motives can be made so much more meaningful when we involve God. Why do I say this? More than anyone else, He knows our hearts because He created us. So, who better to ask for guidance than Him? If you’d like to explore the possibility of connecting with God, please click on the banner below.