Time. Moments. Milestones. Some themes of the sermon series my church is doing, and are the things that separate VLA from so many other programs. They also happen to be timeless principles we are slowly losing on our upcoming generations. See why these concepts are the key to taking tender loving care to a whole new level.
The History:
A man stands alone, really little more than a boy, his nation at his back defeated and dismayed. A giant stands before, the epitome of the word in every way, the pride of His nation that is behind him, just waiting to devour and destroy all the man boy holds dear. The man boy, David, stands; equipped with only a small sling, a stone, and a faith he holds which is all that keeps him standing. David stands, one man, courageous and steadfast, the sling spins, the stone flies, and the giant falls. One man, with one act, inspires and saves a nation.
One woman, compelled by the needs and suffering of the less fortunate in the world, armed only with her compassion, faith, and support of others for the tools of her work, takes it upon herself give of her life completely. She utterly pours out of herself to those who need love and the sheer basics of life. Her generosity, charity, and good works singularly elevate the standard of giving and becomes the benchmark name, that all who feel the tug at their soul to give, have at the tip of their tongue: Mother Theresa.
A culture drives itself towards perfection, and in doing so reduces the value of lives seen as imperfect, encouraging the discarding of its undesirable young to level of “infanticide.” One man, brokenhearted but not broken over this tragedy decides to take in all the “unwanted” that he can. He does so through a ‘drop box’ where those who make the decision to give up their unwanted child can anonymously drop the child off; thus retaining their dignity even through a difficult decision. This pastor, Lee Jong-rak, literally saves multitudes of precious infant lives, who have no power to decide for themselves whether or not they are wanted or what they are worth, by his ‘drop-box’ ministry.
One God gives to humanity His only Son. This Son gathers and trains a few, some skilled some unskilled, some upstanding some despised; men that take His teachings and change the course of human history and its future forever. This Son, Jesus Christ, lived and taught the love of the God who created all life and its’ systems, gave his life to the point of public execution without committing a single crime, and raised again so that all would have a way to know and love the God who sent Him.
The result:
Lets face it, our world, our history, our design, and most of our truly inspirational and influential accomplishments are marked by ‘the one’ and not ‘the many’. An entire nation was saved by a harp playing shepherd, thousands were helped and cared for by the compassion of a single nun, multitudes of unwanted babies were saved by one man’s desire to love the unloved, and the way was provided for all of us to have a relationship with our Creator by the sacrificial love of His only Son.
In a world that likes to determine its success by the quantity it affects, provides, and accomplishes it might be prudent to take a step back and look to the quality for a change. It just might be that we find it was the quality of these singular men and woman, or the small group of misfits under Jesus’ tutelage, who decided to make a change around them, which impacted the many. We might realize that it is not just ‘the many’ who can make large transformations. That it could be argued based on the previous and so many other examples, that ‘the one’ or even the few have a far greater, further reaching effect on the communities around them: even the world.
One of the most frequent questions Veritas Life Adventures gets is, “Why do you only take 10 kids a year, shouldn’t you want to affect as many as you can, at least more than 10?” To which my answer is, “Of course we want to affect more, which is why we only take 10.” Because we understand from these past examples, if we gain 10 youth who have a drive and potential to be the leaders of tomorrow and take the in-depth time and effort to equip them with the tools and opportunity to do so; then they will be the names our future generations will read about, aspire to, and learn from on how they impacted humanity.
Do we not desire and see the positive effects of smaller teacher to student ratios in our public schools?
Have you ever been shocked by the change you saw when you were instructed by a personal trainer compared to doing large class workouts?
This is why we know that keeping our goal of training ten Seekers a year in the program will have a far better outcome. That from these ten Seekers, tens of thousands they later lead will be motivated to change and grow, just as they were through the program.
Because they are ‘a’ soul, a potential great soul, created in the image of God, both fearfully and wondrously made. Made for a purpose, be it great or small, yet to be fulfilled.
So you tell me which is greater, ‘the one’ or ‘the many’? …
Or maybe, just maybe, we should start seeing it as ‘the one’ for the flourishing of ‘the many’!
