Tag: making a difference

Hope

I hope the first day of 2024 treated you well. Mine was productive…I was awake at 5, so I got up and went for a run before spending the rest of the morning in the garden, mowing, weeding, and landscaping. It feels good to be at the end of the first day of a new year and be able to point at what I’ve already achieved.

Many are less fortunate than me. From people who lost their homes and loved ones in floods in my home province last night, to the devastating earthquake in Japan just a few hours ago, 2024 is already shaping up to be a rotten year for some.

And yet…

As I reflected on the past year and looked ahead to the new one during the past couple of weeks, a word kept surfacing in my thoughts:

Hope

The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘hope’ as, ‘a feeling of expectation and desire for a particular thing to happen,’ and, ‘a feeling of trust.’ It’s about feelings and desires. Basically, a wish. But that’s not the word that had anchored itself in my mind. The word I gradually become obsessed with is infinitely bigger than my wants.

Pondering this while pulling out weeds this morning I was reminded of the well-known passage in Jeremiah 29:11: ‘“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.‘

This is a passage that is often quoted out of context, so it’s important to fill in the blanks here. Jeremiah speaks this prophecy to the Israelites who’d been carried away in captivity by the Babylonians. They’ve lost everything, they’re in a strange country, and they feel their God has abandoned them. Looking at the state of the world at the moment, I can begin to imagine what they’re feeling.

God tells them to have hope, he will keep his promises, he will answer when they call. In the Bible, hope is the confident expectation of what God has promised. It’s not based in our feelings, but in God’s faithfulness.

Over the weekend, scrolling through my Facebook feed, I spotted part of the headline to an opinion piece on a news site I follow, Hope is a verb… Given my recent obsession with the word I took note of it, and thought it an interesting idea, but I didn’t click through to read it. Earlier today I went looking for it.

The article is very focused on the South African political landscape, but one part stood out:

“…hope is not a passive or evasive state but an active one. Hope is a state of doing. People draw hope from seeing others do things and make sacrifices for other people, and who therefore must still have hope themselves.”
Mark Heywood

In Jeremiah 29 the Israelites are anxious to go home, having been promised this by “prophets” among them. Through Jeremiah, God tells them to get comfortable in their new home, as they’re going to be there a while. But not as victims and outcasts, cynical and bitter about their lot. No, he tells them to show up and participate, to be good citizens and to pray for their new country as if it’s their own. And only then comes the promise in verse 11 and onward.

Hope is a verb. It’s not wishing. It’s doing. It’s showing up. It’s living in expectation of the change you want to see, and being part of that change. It doesn’t deny that bad stuff happens (that’s the wishing kind of hope), but it chooses to take action and do what you’re able to do to make things better, no matter how small.

That’s the word that’s been slowly invading my thoughts, that’s gradually changing my perspective, that’s making me want to do more, to have a bigger impact this year. To be a blessing because I’ve been blessed with much.

Instead of resolutions this year, I’m doing hope.

So I wish you a hope-filled 2024.

On making a difference

I believe that most of us genuinely want to make a difference in this world. But we become overwhelmed. We see how big the task is before us, we become very aware of our own limitations and inadequacies, and we lose our nerve. We remember the pain of the last time we failed, the last time our work didn’t have the desired effect, the last time we were betrayed, and we shy away from taking the risk – we don’t want to feel that again.

This morning I was reminded that that isn’t an excuse.

Continue reading “On making a difference” →

On the power of small things

Wow! Two posts in one day. I know, right? But I saw this and it was simply too good not to share immediately (and not just because it features one of the most spectacular pieces of music ever composed).

So, it’s an advertisement for a bank (they call it an homage to their city…sure) and the bit with the girl was probably set up, but that does not make this video any less powerful.

Because the truth is, the smallest of gestures can often put great things in motion. A smile. A kind word. A miniscule act of self-sacrifice. A moment of putting another first. An instant of compassion.

There’s this thing called the law of unintended consequences, usually applied to economics or politics, but it has bearing in our everyday lives as well. That small act that you deem insignificant, that you maybe not even perform intentionally, can potentially have consequences that are infinitely bigger than the original act.

You might never see those results, but trust that your actions do have consequences, even the little ones.

So start paying attention to those little things you can do every day to make a difference in someone’s life, no matter how small. You might just be surprised at the result.

On Mandela Day

Today is Nelson Mandela’s (who, according to his family is doing much better) 95th birthday. Today is also Mandela Day. Mandela Day was started in 2009 by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, a year after Madiba’s 90th birthday. Later that year the UN officially declared July 18 to be International Nelson Mandela Day.

It’s not a public holiday, not even in South Africa. It’s rather (according to the official website) “a day dedicated to his life’s work and that of his charitable organisations, and to ensure his legacy continues forever.” The idea behind it is that, “Mr Mandela gave 67 years of his life fighting for the rights of humanity. All we are asking is that everyone gives 67 minutes of their time, whether it’s supporting your chosen charity or serving your local community. Mandela Day is a call to action for individuals – for people everywhere – to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as Mr Mandela did.” Wikipedia calls it, “…a global call to action that celebrates the idea that each individual has the power to transform the world, the ability to make an impact.”

I don’t have a problem with honouring the legacy of someone like Madiba. The impact he has had on South Africa and the rest of the world cannot be denied and he will forever be remembered along with people like Mahatma Ghandi, Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King Jr. Nor do I disagree that every individual can and should make an impact – in fact, it should be said more often.

But this 67 minutes-thing bugs me. Continue reading “On Mandela Day” →