Making a Difference

Galatians 6:9–10 KJV 1900

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Cyrus Hamlin was one of the most fascinating men of the nineteenth century—an educator, a missionary, a statesman, and an inventor. He learned early in life about the joy of making a difference. He was only eleven when he was allowed to go into town alone on Muster Day, a great holiday in Maine, featuring parades and all sorts of exciting activities. His mother gave him seven cents for gingerbread; but as she put the coins in his hand, she said, “Perhaps you will stop at Mrs. Farrar’s and put a cent or two in the contribution box.”

Walking to town, Cyrus debated how to divide up his coins: how many he would give and how many he would keep. When he arrived in town, he dumped all seven cents in the contribution box. That night he returned home hungry as a bear, and his mother gave him a bowl of bread and milk. He later called it the best meal he ever had. From that experience, he learned the joy of giving, of contributing, of helping others, and of making a difference. But that’s not all.

Years later while in Turkey during the Crimean War, Cyrus noticed how badly the sick and wounded soldiers suffered because there were no clean clothes for their bodies or sheets for their beds. He invented a washing machine using materials at hand. He later said that he had been credited with sixteen different professions including university president and professor of theology, but that of “washerwoman” was the one of which he was most proud.

Find Joy

Whether it’s giving a handful of coins to the needy or washing clothes for the sick, there’s joy in serving Jesus. We live in a world in which no one wants to step up and make a difference. We’re afraid our lives will be interrupted, our comfort disrupted, or our leisure circumvented. But history has proven that men and women who have truly stepped up, sacrificed, and become involved in making a difference were changed for the better, and for the happier.

Take the apostle Paul, for example. He didn’t own a house as far as we know. He didn’t have a wife. He had no stable income or regular vacations. He had no retirement account, and he spent his final days in a Roman prison. But he uses the words joy, rejoice, gladness, and cheer sixty-seven times in his several letters.      

Don’t Wait

Sometimes we think we’ll become useful “some day”; but right now, we’re too busy trying to make it through another week. But the secret to making a difference is to do something NOW. “How wonderful it is,” wrote Anne Frank, “that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

Think of some small little change you can make in your routine or a small improvement you can try at home. The accumulation of little improvements makes for big changes in attitude in our homes and churches, and in our own hearts.

Think Service

It’s also helpful to change the way we think of ourselves. We’ve been trained by the popular culture to think of ourselves as consumers who need to be served and as customers who need to be satisfied. But let’s think of ourselves as servants who want to change the world.

Richard Wurmbrand was the Romanian minister who wrote Tortured for Christ. On February 29, 1948, he was arrested on his way to church. Despite harsh interrogation and torture, he refused to denounce the Lord Jesus; and as a result, he was sentenced to years of solitary confinement in a dank cell thirty feet below ground. He had no Bible and no book, and no communication with family or friends was allowed. He was cut off from every communication and comfort.

But Wurmbrand knew he could still make a difference. He established a routine in which he composed three hundred poems and committed them to memory. He prepared and preached a new sermon every day, even though no one but himself heard it. From this experience came a lifetime of ministering to the persecuted church after his release.

We can live without our conveniences, and there are some amenities we may need to forego. But wherever we are, we can be of use if we learn to think of ourselves in terms of servanthood. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I...” wrote Robert Frost, “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

Prov

Proverbs 3:27 KJV 1900

Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, When it is in the power of thine hand to do it.

“We rise by lifting others.” Robert Ingersoll

“Your life is your message to the world. Make sure it’s inspiring.” Anonymous

“Help others to see themselves better than they are until they believe.”

In Colossians, we are told that being filled with God’s will leads to bearing fruit in every good work. Bearing fruit comes from growing things. When a tree is planted, watered and taken care of, then it bears good fruit. When God’s will is planted in us, attended to and taken care of, then we bear good fruit.

Building Bridges

8th April 2015Anger, Forgivenness, Friendship, Making A Difference

Once upon a time two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch. Then the long collaboration fell apart.

It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John’s door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter’s toolbox. “I’m looking for a few days work” he said. “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?”

“Yes,” said the older brother. “I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That’s my neighbor, in fact, it’s my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us. Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I’ll go him one better. See that pile of lumber over by the barn? I want you to build me a fence –an 8-foot fence — so I won’t need to see his place anymore. Cool him down, anyhow.”

The carpenter said, “I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a job that pleases you.”

The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer’s eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence at all. It was a bridge — a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all — and the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched. “You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done.”

The two brothers met at the middle of the bridge, taking each other’s hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder. “No, wait! Stay a few days. I’ve a lot of other projects for you,” said the older brother.

“I’d love to stay on,” the carpenter said, “but I have so many more bridges to build.”

“Act as if what you do makes a difference, it does.” William James

Everyone needs compassion

Everyone needs forgiveness

• God wants you to make a difference in the lives of your neighbors.

• God wants you to make a difference in the lives of your family.

• God wants you to make a difference in the lives of your work associates.

Hebrews 3:13 KJV 1900

But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 3:13

2 Timothy 1:16–18 KJV 1900

The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.

You are making a difference in the life of someone who is watching you. It may be your mate, your children, your grandchildren, a friend, a brother; someone is watching you and they will compare their life to yours. What kind of difference are you making in the lives of those around you?

altruistic: having or showing an unselfish concern for the welfare of others

You are making a difference in the life of someone who is watching you. It may be your mate, your children, your grandchildren, a friend, a brother; someone is watching you and they will compare their life to yours. What kind of difference are you making in the lives of those around you?