Wow.
I honestly can’t believe we are already two weeks into 2020… time is literally FLYING by! Too soon I’m going to be walking across a stage in a cap and gown to get a diploma signifying the end of my undergraduate experience at Ohio Dominican. I can assure you that I am ready to be out and heading toward grad school to fulfill my dreams of becoming a physician assistant, however, there are many parts of undergrad that will be dearly missed. One of these are the classes that I dreaded taking because they weren’t in my major, the ones that I complained about to my friends, but the ones that have brought magic to my writing and a new level of intellect to my thinking. And it was in one of these classes that a teacher mentioned an old story that sparked my imagination and God whispered that He had a deeper meaning for me there….
THE STARFISH STORY
One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking up and gently throwing things into the ocean.
Approaching the boy he asked: “Young man, what are you doing?”
The boy replied, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back they will die.”
The man laughed to himself and said, “Do you realize there are miles of miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make any difference.”
After listening politely, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the surf, then smiling at the man he said:
“I made a difference to that one.”
-Loren Eiseley
As soon as I heard this story I couldn’t help but consider my faith and the God I serve. He always seems to appear in every aspect of my life, and the words for this post seemed to begin rolling through my mind before I even contemplated writing the words for you to read. It was something I felt needed to be shared.
We live in a world with 7,655,957,369 people. These people are not just flesh and bone, but are a deeply intertwined mind, body, and soul. Why are there only approximately 2,000,000,000 individuals who claim Christianity, and probably even less who actually have an intimate relationship with the one we know as our heavenly Father?
I sense that there is a subtle fear and hopelessness that clutches our hearts and quiets our proclamations about God and His amazing gift. Not only do we fear rejection, persecution, or mocking, but if we thought on it long enough I think we might suggest that we do not think telling one person about God one time would make a difference. But, if we look back at the moral of the story, it is quite obvious that it does.
When I was depressed I cannot tell you how many times a small smile, out – of – the – blue text, or tight hug brought a sliver of hope and joy back into my world. For the individual who engaged in the action it probably didn’t seem significant, they were just bending over and picking up a starfish, but to me they saved my life.
See, it is easy to think that we need a grandiose plan that will reach millions to claim significance when we die. But this line of thinking can often get us into trouble because there arises excuses of platform and money and background that keep our feet planted. Yes, you may very well be the next Sadie Robertson or Tim Tebow who are changing thousands of lives for Christ and are beaming examples of making a difference. But what’s so wrong with being you?
You, the person reading this right now, comes into contact with people probably every day of your life. What if instead of looking at the whole beach you started looking at the individual starfish, the human beings that God created and put in your life? What if you started throwing them back into the ocean one by one… no big plan, nothing elegant or flashy… just bending over, grabbing a starfish, and throwing them back? Maybe the action is a smile or listening to your friend as she vents about her family’s problems. Maybe it’s paying for the person behind you at Starbucks or letting someone cut in front of you at the grocery store. Even better, maybe its striking up conversations more often about God and extending invitations to Church. It doesn’t seem like much, but it is.
If you even told one person about God every day for the rest of your life that is about 29,200+ lives that have the potential to be saved. And no, you aren’t radically changing the world or the continent, but you are making a difference for the one. An eternal difference.
We serve a God who is all about the one. In Luke 15:3-7 God showed His love for the lost and broken through a parable of a Shephard and his sheep. As he was watching them one sheep wandered away and he – without hesitation – left the 99 saved sheep for the one lost and broken sheep. That is how God views the human race. We are lost and broken, and we just need someone to throw us back into the ocean by sharing the love and Word of God. We need to be rescued. We need someone who knows that they might not save them all, but they can save the next one they meet.
Because if we were all focused on saving the next one we meet, you never know… we serve a powerful God and in pointing the lost to the one who saves them from death, we might just save more than we could ever imagine.
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