How do I make a difference...?

How do I make a difference?

Think there are two ways to see this question.

How do I make a difference as a person?

How do I make a difference through my work?

Because was chatting with Hanes on the way back home while he was driving me back. And that got me started off.

As a person, how can I make a difference? By loving my neighbour as myself. By being a person who reaches out to those around him/her. To bring a smile, to meet the needs, to encourage my neighbours, to make friends with the stranger in the next cubicle/lecture seat.

And in work? What does it mean to make a difference through the work that you do?

I was thinking, there are two types of work that prepare you to make a difference.

One is direct, the other indirect.

For instance, Dorcas in the Acts church sewed clothes for the poor widows. Mother Teresa and her missions of mercy. Our own people at home in Singapore, who take time to deliver leftover bread to the needy. Anti-AIDS campaigners going around to educate people about the dangers of AIDS. Police officers risk their lives every day to capture dangerous criminals to protect the innocent. And the good list goes on.

And the indirect? Moses was a shepherd. Jesus a carpenter. Paul a tentmaker. My dad's an insurance agent. My mum's a teacher. My friend works as a programmer. Yet another friend works as a maths researcher. Farmers produce food. Fishmongers sell fishes. Hawkers sell food. Cleaners clean tables. Engineers build machines, buildings and software and so on.

Maybe the important thing here is that to God, both kinds of work are equally important. There's not an explicit dichotomy, really, but I just think that even though some kinds of work are less visible, we all need one another equally.

But for the Christian, let's say you're longing to make a difference. And you feel that the work you're doing doesn't exactly seem very linked to ... anything spiritual or purposeful.

Maybe, just maybe... stand back and consider. Since we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, could it be that the very work you are doing is laying the foundation for something greater He is calling you to do in future? After all, Jesus worked for many years as a carpenter. It didn't seem very much like the career path to being a rabbi, let alone a world-changer.

But it didn't matter in the end...

William Carey was a shoemaker (not a cobbler, a shoemaker). But he had this gift and passion for learning and translating languages. And God used him in due time to translate the Bible into several Indian languages and even a Chinese Bible too! That even the King of England eventually came to hear of what he did, and was "pleased that one of his subjects should be involved in such an endeavour!"

Maybe, the work that we all start off on is rather incidental. Sometimes it may touch directly, or sometimes it may be totally unrelated to what you sense may be a specific calling.

Hmm... taking a step back and looking at this, hah, perhaps I'm becoming too pedantic about this.

Oh. :) I think God's ways are more detailed than ours. He can weave every unique aspect of our lives, including our education, our personalities, our work training, our skills, our gifts, our talents... as long as we seek Him, He will lead each of us to the specific plan that He intends our lives to be.

*******

Hanes remarked that I seem to be the kind of person who values comfort a lot, and at the same time, don't want to be stuck in a job that is meaningless, like a drone. That's true. One must give way to the other, and even if I have to give up my comfort, well, it's good, because my heart was made to desire comfort... and God knows that I shall never find true comfort in anything else but in His arms.

"Thirst was made for water." So my heart wants to be in comfort too. Thank God He is the Comforter, the Father of compassion. Maybe that's why my heart really goes out to crying children, longing to comfort them. Because I think that's the way that God made me... to extend comfort and courage to them.

Comfort, such a beautiful word. In its proper context, comfort isn't a plush sofa, but literally, "to fortify with compassion" i.e. compassion + fortify = comfort. To strengthen broken hearts, broken lives, thus to be more than overcomers of life's challenges.

I think I can't be contented till I pursue this passion God has given me. And God knows I need to press on harder, to discipline my natural melancholy and laziness.

You and I, we can make a difference today. Not by ourselves, but Him who works through you and me. :)