The Power of One

What can one person do? Do you feel the weight of the world is on your shoulders? Financially providing for your family, being the primary caregiver for an aging parent, getting up multiple times each night and literally at the crack of dawn each morning with a newborn can become heavy loads. However, do you honestly believe you can solve all your family's problems much less the world's troubles? The mind knows it is an impossible task, yet the heart continues to encourage living in superman mode.

Okay. Let's be real. What can one person do? Can you feed all the homeless in your community? Will your Solomonesque wisdom be received and practiced by every coworker, friend, and family member struggling with a relationship, job, or self-image? Can you convince domestic and foreign terrorists to lay down guns, bombs, and swords in order to try a different method of making this world we all live in a better place? If the answer is "No," does it mean life is hopeless; there is no solution? Must apathy be the only available course of action?

There is no mere human who can permanently solve all these problems. Nevertheless, everyone can supply a piece to complete the jigsaw puzzle "solution." Together we can. Honestly, you may be thinking of all the times people and teams of people have failed to provide a good solution, a lasting solution, or any solution at all. Which is why it is intellectually lacking to under utilize or ignore the Higher Power available. Human ability alone has proven incapable of making every day, in every way, better as was once thought in the modern era when men were going to the moon and scientific discoveries seemed to occur every other day. There is One who can, however. He is fully human and fully God. There has never been or will be anyone like him whose name is Jesus Christ. Through Him God created the world from nothing and brought order out of chaos. Jesus makes available healing of body, mind and soul.

God, the Father of Jesus Christ, said through his servant King Solomon "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your paths." Women and men following and empowered by God through faith in Jesus Christ do make the world a better place in a multitude of ways each day.

Don't expect someone else to do your part. There is no one like you. You have a unique sphere of influence and ability. God is counting on you. Perhaps this was part of the milieu from which Martin Niemöller, Protestant pastor and critic of Nazism, said, "First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -- Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me."

Look around. Where is God leading and empowering you to make a difference; to supply one piece, your piece, of the puzzle. Together with God any puzzle can be solved. Don't underestimate the power of one infused with the power of the One!

-- Dr. Randy Rowlan is pastor of First United Methodist Church. Comments are welcomed at [email protected]. The opinions expressed are those of the author.