I was driving home from teaching PiYo early on Wednesday morning and this song began playing. I have heard it so many times it shouldn’t have caught me any differently than before. But it did.
And then Wednesday at noon we were talking in Bible study about how in our culture we tend to take a step back and not try to change anything because we are either overwhelmed with the immensity of the problem and we don’t think that the little bit that we could do would make a difference or we don’t want to stand out from the crowd and be ridiculed or perhaps even persecuted for trying to go against the status quo.
For all of you who wonder if what you do makes a difference.
- If helping one person has any impact at all on the world.
- If standing up for the rights of a group of people changes how they are treated.
- If making right choices in your life makes the world a better place.
- If pouring your heart and soul into what you feel called to do affects the people around you.
It does. It is worth it. It is needed.
Change begins small and grows. A fire begins with a single spark. One rock dropped into the water makes ever-increasing ripples.
But even if you aren’t able to see how what you are doing is making an impact on the world around you, it is making an impact on you. You are making a stand and a statement by doing what is right, by helping others, and by giving your best. And in the process you are letting people know that you care enough to do something that may not gain you a thing except a stronger character.
“As long as one heart holds on, then hope is never really gone.”
Keep being the change that you want to see. Even when it is hard. Even when it goes unnoticed.
It makes a difference.
Garth Brooks video: The Change from Big Chief Studio on Vimeo.
The Change
by Garth Brooks
One hand reaches out
And pulls a lost soul from harm
While a thousand more go unspoken for
And they say,
“What good have you done by saving just this one”
It’s like whispering a prayer
In the fury of a storm
And I hear them saying,
“You’ll never change things
And no matter what you do
It’s still the same thing”
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so, this world will know
That it will not change me
This heart still believes
That love and mercy still exist
While all the hatreds rage
And so many say
“That love is all but pointless,
In madness such as this
“It’s like trying to stop a fire
With the moisture from a kiss”
And I hear them saying,
“You’ll never change things
And no matter what you do
It’s still the same thing”
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so, this world will know
That it will not change me
As long as one heart still holds on
Then hope is never really gone
And I hear them saying,
“You’ll never change things
And no matter what you do
It’s still the same thing”
But it’s not the world that I am changing
I do this so, this world we know
Never changes me
What I do is so, this world will know
That it will not change me
