What difference can one person make?

When we look at the world today and are faced with a daily string of depressing news items – from wars, famine, natural disasters, to the mass detention of Uyghur Muslims in Chinese camps or the forced abduction of schoolgirls in northern Nigeria – it’s so easy to be overwhelmed by the sorrow and devastation in front of us. We can find ourselves asking, quite understandably, ‘In the grand scheme of things, what difference can I, one person, really make?’

Thankfully, the Bible offers us a helpful response to this question.

‘God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be… Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.’ (1 Corinthians 12:18, 27)

As Paul reminds us, just as every member of the body serves a specific purpose, so too we, as individuals, all have an important part to play. We each have something to offer and our individual actions can affect the whole.

Throughout history there are countless instances of times where societal thinking has been transformed, even on a global scale, by individuals coming together to call for change. Think of the abolition of the slave trade, the emancipation of women, the civil rights movement, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.

Even today, we can clearly see people power at work, with more and more people speaking out about the climate crisis and the importance of protecting our planet.

All of these momentous shifts – which at one time would have been quite unimaginable – were all made possible by individuals coming together and taking a stand. People power has worked in the past and it will most certainly work again in the future.

‘She has done a beautiful thing to me… When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’ (Matthew 26:10-13)

The woman from Bethany who lovingly anoints Jesus with expensive perfume could not possibly have understood the significance of her simple act of kindness. She had no knowledge of Christ’s upcoming crucifixion and death; no way of comprehending Christ’s reference to burial. And yet, she showed love in the way she knew how.

What’s more, we must trust that whenever we do a small act of mercy, no matter how small it might seem to us, Christ sees the heart behind what we do. We might not see the effects of our small actions in this life, but we can be certain that God sees and takes note of them. And we can be confident that, by God’s grace and power, even the smallest actions can have a very real and tangible effect on others.

Fortunately, none of us can be expected to do everything, but we can certainly all do something. And we are called to find out what that something is.