You can Change the World.

We often think that we have little influence or that we are unable to change things for the better. For things to change the leaders or people in charge must do it. So we put faith in government, “experts”, or the wealthy not realizing that we have the power to change lives thereby changing society.

It does not take a social or political movement, or something BIG to make an impact. Have you ever tossed a stone into a pool of water and watched as the ripples expand and expand having effect on water a distance from where the stone entered the water? Our positive words and deeds can be like that.

I remember stopping a young man from being badly beaten, perhaps killed. (For the attackers surely had it in mind.) I got him out of the situation and sent him on his way. I did not see him again for several years. One day a fellow stopped me on the street and introduced himself as that man and thanked me again for my intervention. I assured him that that was quite all right and then asked what he had been doing He told me that after that night he’d changed his lifestyle and had just finished helping as a volunteer care worker overseas. I told him I was proud of him and obviously helping him in his time of trouble was a good thing.

I helped him. He went on to help others.You may not relate to that story of violence. How about this?

Once a friend and I were visiting. We’d just left the army. In our conversation I mentioned that we really should be taking our faith and or lives more seriously. It was just part of a larger conversation. He moved out of state shortly after that. One day, years later I received a letter from him mentioning that part of the conversation and thanking me. It turns out that had made an impact on him. He let me know that he had gotten more serious about his faith and life, found a fine wife and had several children and was teaching them to take the important things seriously and to be good human beings.

I spoke a little truth that we both needed to hear. He took it and it helped change his life…his future.

These examples are not about me. They are examples of how a good act or a good word can change things, change lives.

There is a classic Christmas film called “It’s a Wonderful Life” in which the main character is so distraught in a time of crisis he says that it would be better if he’d never been born. So he was shown what his world would be without him. At the end he realizes that really he had a wonderful life and had accomplished a lot of good.

We often don’t know the effects of our good actions or words. That does NOT mean that we did not change our worlds. Know it or not the water ripples as we toss in our pebbles. Do good. Speak good. Change the world.