The work of one is worth it. And we see that in Jesus.
He took time for the one. Luke 15 reminds us that He would leave the 99 in the open country and go after the one.
Sometimes I think we get caught up in the masses, pleasing the whole family, becoming influencers on social media, taking care of all our clientele, reaching more people, whatever it is.
Maybe we ought to consider getting caught up in what Jesus got caught up in:
- The one right in front of Him.
- The woman at the well.
- The man with a shriveled hand.
- The woman caught in the act of adultery.
- The demon-possessed man in the tombs.
Jesus took care of WHO was right in front of Him. And while He was with them, He wasn’t distracted by the disciples in the boat, the crowds on the hillside, or the needs begging for help all around Him.
He was present with the person present.
Collide started with one. One college-aged girl asked me to mentor her. I said yes. She brought 20-some friends. I simply tried to be faithful to these ones God put in front of me. And God brought more.
I am not saying I am amazing or have done this perfectly, but I have become a firm believer in these words from Matthew 25:21: “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”
Be faithful with the one. And if God brings you two, be faithful with the two. God’s not gonna give you two if you aren’t taking care of one.
We just found out that the Collide Podcast hit #90 in Christian podcasts out of more than 148,000! That is amazing. But guess what? This was the work of one.
One woman named Kenna came up with the idea. She encouraged me to start a podcast. I didn’t want to. She was convincing. And she did the work to make it possible.
I started by interviewing one guest. Being curious about one person and their story. Keep in mind, that first interview was in a storage room, surrounded by blankets covering event supplies so we could get decent sound quality. You should have seen it. 🙂
And then I interviewed one more person. And another. And another. Every week for 8 years.
We didn’t get to #90 because we were trying to get to the top of a chart. We got here because the work of one is worth it. One person by one person by one person.
I don’t know what you are trying to accomplish right now, but I do know this:
Be faithful with what God has put in front of you.
- Be faithful to your little one who is melting down because they need your attention.
- Be faithful to the grumpy checker who can’t wait to get off her shift.
- Be faithful to the coworker who isn’t pulling her weight because home life is messy right now.
- Be faithful to the one person who DMs you on Instagram.
- Be faithful to that idea you sense God might use in a mighty way.
- Be faithful to the one opportunity you have.
The work of one is worth it. We can change the world or at least make a pretty good Kingdom dent, life by life by life, one by one by one.
And that is something worth celebrating.
