Tiny Ripples
“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may
be in good health, as it goes well with your soul. For I rejoiced
greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed
you are walking in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that
my children are walking in the truth.
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for
these brothers, strangers as they are, who testified to your love
before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in
a manner worthy of God.” – 3
John 1:2-6
GPUMC does a staggering amount of good work. A recap of some of our latest efforts provides a rich sample. Ninety books donated to a reading program. Lunch prepared for 150 at the Scott Center. Another blood drive, the 12th in the past four years. Three hundred NOAH bag lunches. The housing of 20 homeless people during Shelter Week. Five hundred people served by the Immanuel Food Pantry in a single week, with most of the food donated by our church.
Yet while our efforts continue to grow, so does the need. It’s easy to get discouraged and wonder: Does it really make a difference?
My recent reading of a book about Bobby Kennedy provided an answer. I was struck by how, late in his short life, his political focus dovetailed with a growing Christian sensitivity, especially when it came to the poor and downtrodden.
At one point, he was invited to speak in South Africa, then under the grip of the system of racial inequality known as apartheid. In what was later called his “Ripple of Hope” address, Kennedy said:
"Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation. … Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
In that spirit, may GPUMC find a way to be an endless source of such ripples for many years to come.
Dave Versical
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