Who Is Your One?
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio (Pexels)
Who is your one?
One person, one name, one life—your “one” who you know needs a relationship with Jesus to change the trajectory of their life.
Get that name. Get that face. Commit to it. Write it down on a piece of paper. Stick it in your Bible. Put it on your desk.
The ripple effect of that decision could be beyond what you can even imagine.
Let me give you an example. In 1858, there was a Sunday School teacher in Boston named Edward Kimball. He was concerned about one of his students who worked in a shoe store. Kimball went to where he worked and found him stocking shelves in the back. He challenged him about his relationship with God, and the young man decided to give his life to Christ.
His name was D. L. Moody, who left the shoe business and became one of the greatest Christian leaders of his time. If you have heard of the Moody Bible Institute or Moody Publishing, you know that his legacy continues to this day.
One day Moody was speaking in a church to a man named Frederick Meyer. Meyer was so inspired by Moody’s story and the impact of his Sunday school teacher, that he decided to enter into vocational ministry as well. One day, when Meyer was speaking at a church in Northfield, Massachusetts, a man named J. Wilbur Chapman heard him speaking and gave his life to Christ.
Chapman entered vocational ministry and began mentoring a young baseball player named Billy Sunday, who went on to speak to thousands about Jesus. Sunday was actually once in Charlotte, North Carolina speaking at a series of meetings. Inspired by Sunday’s ministry, a group of men in Charlotte dedicated themselves to reaching the city for Jesus. They brought in an evangelist named Mordecai Ham.
By now, it was the year 1932. A local farmer loaded his pick-up truck with neighbors and brought them to the meeting led by Ham. One of the neighbors was a 16-year-old boy who sat in the crowd every night. On the very last night of those meetings, he gave his life to Jesus.
That teenager was named Billy Graham, who would go on to tell more people about Jesus than any other person in history.
And it all started with one man, Edward Kimball, reaching out to another, who reached out to another, who reached out to another... on and on it went.
The power of one.
You know, it can be easy to go through life thinking that we aren’t making that much of a difference in the lives of those around us.
This reminds me of an old story—one you may be familiar with and has always stuck with me.
It’s a story about a man who was walking down a beach at sunset. As he walked along, he saw someone up ahead of him who kept bending down, picking something up, and throwing it into the ocean.
As he got closer, he saw what the guy was doing. He was picking up starfish that had washed up on the beach and, one at a time, was throwing them back into the water.
He walked up to the man and asked him what he was doing.
The man said: “I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. The tide is going out, and all these starfish have been washed onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die.”
He responded: “But there must be thousands of starfish on this beach! You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And this is just one of hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. You can’t possibly make much of a difference.”
The man just smiled, bent down, picked up another starfish, and threw it back into the sea. Then he turned and said, “I made a difference to that one.”
So again, I ask you, who’s your one? Who’s the one you’re going to make a difference to?
The one who needs someone to care about them? The one who needs someone who has faith in their life—a faith that God can and will work through?
Who will be your one?
Again, get that name and make a commitment to them. Write their name down on a piece of paper and stick it in your Bible or put it on your desk. Commit to praying for them. Commit to asking God to present opportunities where you can have conversations with them about the difference a relationship with God has made in your life.
Imagine what it will be like when you see your one come to faith in Jesus; when you see your one emerge from the waters of baptism.
They matter to God, so make sure they are mattering to you. And that they know they matter to God and to you.
James Emery White
Sources
Excerpt adapted from the third installment of the series “Start with Why” delivered by James Emery White at Mecklenburg Community Church. You can find this series at Church & Culture HERE.