Changing the World

I stood on our front porch last evening about dusk and heard the locusts singing and in the distance, the sound of thunder echoed across the hills.  I looked up at the high sky and saw the dark clouds moving in.  I felt very small and not all that important in a Universe that is big beyond my conception.

There is a picture book that I really enjoy reading to our children called "The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge."  It tells the story of a (self-aware) lighthouse that protects ships and boats from rocks on the edge of the Hudson River, until a large bridge is built above it and a light is placed on top of the bridge.

At this point, the lighthouse feels very small and unimportant in comparison to the bridge and is certain that now that bridge is protecting the boats from the rocks, it no longer serves a purpose.  Fortunately, at the end of the book, the lighthouse realizes that it can continue protecting boats from the shoals, even though it also knows itself to be very small in the scheme of things.

I suppose most of us humans (except those running for president) have felt much in common with this lighthouse.  There are plenty of times that we feel small and wonder if we are serving a purpose at all.

I suppose I think of this more as I get older, because I know that I am not enough.  I cannot stamp out world hunger, or stop the spread of COVID, or prevent droughts in the horn of Africa or, even get rid of squash bugs in my garden.  I am just a little doctor in a small town and those sorts of problems are beyond my ability to solve.

And that's OK, because God hasn't called me to fix the big issues of this world.

I cannot change the world, but I can touch the lives of a few individuals every day.  I can take the time to listen to a woman who has recently lost her husband and hear her grief.  I can make the effort to notice the man who has lost two pounds since his last visit and encourage him to carry on.  I can spend a few heart beats and pray with a woman for whom medicine seemingly has no answers.

It isn't much and it isn't a "great" work, but it is important.

God hasn't called most of us to change the world, He has just called us to give ourselves to those in need around us one breath at a time.

If enough people do it, it just might change the world.

For sure, it will change someone's world.