The world lost a remarkable scientist and humanitarian last week when Dr. Jane Goodall passed away.
I spent some time reading about her work, and ran across yesterday’s quote:
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
As I said yesterday, it’s awfully easy to imagine our day-to-day actions don’t matter. How we interact with people, how we conduct business, even how we react in traffic. It’s easy to write those actions off as insignificant.
They aren’t.
As I learn more about how Jesus interacted with people, I’m more and more convinced that small, everyday actions matter more than the big events on which we place so much emphasis.
Even the famous incident of feeding 5000 people was really a lesson for Philip and Andrew (and the boy whose lunch they borrowed) about trusting God for provision. I’m learning that Jesus cared for people one-at-a-time.
I believe he provided an example. As the perfect image of God, he showed us it’s not the big, flashy affairs that matter.
What you and I do, in our simple, normal, everyday actions, makes a difference. I think, too often, the person I encounter in the parking lot won’t be impacted by my attitude. It won’t matter if I smile at the guy I pass on the bike trail. It’s okay if I take out my frustration by snarling at a stranger. I pretend those things don’t matter.
They do.
You and I can choose to hold up a mirror in which others see the reflection of Jesus.