One Person Can Make a Difference and It Starts With Relationships

John F. Kennedy spoke to the Irish Parliament on June 28, 1963, and said, "The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics, whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not."

We often get confused on what will change the world into a better place.  We get comfortable complaining and expect others to take the initiative and make a difference.  We expect someone in Washington, the neighbor down the street, or our spouse to make things better.  When all too often, the person that has the most potential to make a difference in the world you live in is the person you see in the mirror.  You are in the best position to make your world a better place.  God made and designed you to make a positive difference.

Relationships are like one fragile entanglement with nearly unlimited potential to transform one's home, workplace, community, and world for the better if you choose to live out a life of loving God and loving your neighbor (with Jesus' definition of what a neighbor is).  Relationships are frail in that they can easily, with the wrong slip of the tongue or inappropriate action, be destroyed.  Relationships have the potential to be more beautiful than the most masterful painting or work of art.  Every day, we can choose whether we are going to be a blessing to others or whether we are going to be a sponge absorbing joy from others.  We can either be Michelangelo or a kid scribbling in a mud puddle.  Are we going to be salt and light or poison and darkness?  The choice is ours to live.

Bill Johnson said, "Most of the Church is waiting for the next big command from God, but God is waiting for the dreams of His Church."  God wants us to dream dreams.  Big dreams.  Wonderful dreams.  On the way to fulfilling those dreams, we will encounter wonderful surprises.  But unless we dream and go after those dreams, things will crumble around us.  

The world is in a state of perpetual deterioration while new life constantly springs anew to bring hope.