What difference can a day make? Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Jesus' ministry was that he changed the world in just over a thousand days. His influence over the last two thousand years has been enormous and, yet, his public ministry only lasted three years. Yes, he was the Son of God, and he initiated the coming of the Holy Spirit, but three years?
"Show me, O Lord, my life's end
and the number of my days;
let me know how fleeting is my life."
Psalm 39:4
We often forget how short our lives are and the limited time we have to achieve our goals and make a difference, but I think we also forget what a difference we can make in so short a time. Jesus' touch was an encouragement to the hopeless, an invitation to the aimless, healing to the broken. One moment could spark a change that shaped a lifetime.
There are so many ways we are made to feel helpless. The nightly news brings the whole world's tragedies to your living room every night. So many problems that you can't touch. So many problems that you weren't meant to solve. Too much makes you feel helpless and insignificant. It can make you believe that evil will always triumph. Most tragically, the landslide of problems that God did not intend you to solve can make you blind to the needs around you that you can minister to.
The world is not changed one nation at a time. It's changed one person at a time. Jesus wasted time with children, the poor, the outcast, with tax men, prostitutes, and political zealots because he knew how the world really worked. Love is the greatest power ever known, but only if it is shared with the loveless. An act of love can rock someone's world like the strongest earthquake, destroying the foundations of fear and hatred, but, unlike an earthquake, love leaves potential, promise, and new life.
Love needs to be personal. I fear too many Christians have exchanged the power of the Holy Spirit for the secular power of politics. We have accepted a pessimistic view of powerlessness and have put our faith in political parties and their leaders. We have lost our hope in changed lives and now settle for better management. But Jesus promises so much more. He takes hearts of stone and gives them new life. Change people and the nation will follow, but I see no examples of a nation's spiritual life improving because of it's ruler. God warned Israel that they would be sorely disappointed if they put their hope in a king. God was proven right.
So ask God to help you to understand the days you are given. They are short, but they are significant. Don't complain about the state of things. That is a poor use of the little time you have. If you are a believer, then you are filled with the Spirit of God and this is the age of the Spirit. The God that set the cosmos into motion is within you. I may be poor and helpless, but the Spirit who wants to touch lives is not. My days are short, and so were Jesus' days on this earth. Three short years have changed so many lives. It's not length of the day. It's the significance God brings to the day. But nothing happens if I waste the day, if I don't invest. I am tempted to say there is always tomorrow to make a difference, but why lose out on another day. Lord, please help me to count my days and make my days count.
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