Sometimes looking at the massive amounts of needs in India seems absolutely over whelming. Seeing all the beggar children on the streets, working in the slum area and seeing how they live, driving by all the people with eyes void of hope, and all the garbage and filth everywhere you go, where do you even begin? When I stand back and look at it all, it seems hopeless! There’s no use even starting because there’s no way I can take care of it all. I can’t feed all the hungry children, I can’t build decent houses for everyone living in the slums, I can’t possibly talk to everyone in India, and there’s no way I can take care of all the garbage everywhere. And that’s right I can’t, its absolutely impossible. But as I was feeling overwhelmed by all of this, I thought of a story that I read in a book called Authentic Relationships� by Wayne Jacobsen and Clay Jacobson.
An older scientist was standing on the shore of a beach, looking in anguish at a vast amount of starfish that had beached themselves during a high tide. As he stood their paralyzed by the immense amount of starfish, he saw a young boy grabbing the starfish and throwing it into the ocean. When the young boy saw the older man he pleaded with the old man for help. The scientist asked, Do you see how many starfish there are? How do you think we can make a difference? The boy stooped down and picked up another starfish and said, It makes a difference for this one.� And he threw it back into the ocean.
I can’t make a difference for everyone, but I can see that one person gets something to eat or I can make sure not to add to the garbage that is littered everywhere and that makes a difference. When I start looking at everything as it makes a difference for this one suddenly what seems so overwhelming and hopeless, doesn’t anymore. If God laid India on my heart for the past eight years to make a difference in one person’s life it’s totally worth it!
One makes a difference!
