An interesting project is taking shape over at Joe's Crabby Shack. Think about how much difference just one person can make in any situation.
His focus is naturally on how much of a difference one armed person can make in any given situation.
But I think the idea can be carried much further. There are passionate leaders in many communities who, through their dedication and hard work, are able to change communities. In fact, 19th century historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle once commented,
There are many inspiring stories of how individuals acting according to their conscience saved great numbers of people throughout the Holocaust.
One of my criticisms of public education is that, by its very nature, it tends to teach children to think and act as a group. Children are often rewarded and punished as a group, school work is increasingly done in groups and even basic functions such as using the toilet are done at designated, communal times.
I try to teach my children that they are individually responsible for their actions. While external factors certainly contribute to all of our choices in life, ultimately we must have the character to stand in the face of these challenges and do what is right despite the consequences and what those around us are doing.
Now I'm trying to think of examples of individuals who have demonstrated this successfully. Corrie ten Boom comes to mind. So do my parents when they decided to take in a young man from Serbia back in the early 90s whom they knew nothing about other than the fact that his parents were desperate to get him out of the country as he was nearing military age. And a little old woman in England I have never met (and who likely died before I was born), but made such an impression on a German POW that he tearfully described to me how she delivered bread daily to the Germans imprisoned at the camp 45 years after it happened.
It only takes one person to change lives, save lives and even change the course of history.
His focus is naturally on how much of a difference one armed person can make in any given situation.
But I think the idea can be carried much further. There are passionate leaders in many communities who, through their dedication and hard work, are able to change communities. In fact, 19th century historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle once commented,
"The history of the world is but the biographies of great men."The bible is full of examples: sin entered the world through one man, and redemption is offered through one man. Joseph saved Egypt from a great famine. Moses led the Israelites out of slavery. Repeatedly through the histories, we see single individuals rise up out of a nation gone astray to guide the people back to the Lord.
There are many inspiring stories of how individuals acting according to their conscience saved great numbers of people throughout the Holocaust.
One of my criticisms of public education is that, by its very nature, it tends to teach children to think and act as a group. Children are often rewarded and punished as a group, school work is increasingly done in groups and even basic functions such as using the toilet are done at designated, communal times.
I try to teach my children that they are individually responsible for their actions. While external factors certainly contribute to all of our choices in life, ultimately we must have the character to stand in the face of these challenges and do what is right despite the consequences and what those around us are doing.
Now I'm trying to think of examples of individuals who have demonstrated this successfully. Corrie ten Boom comes to mind. So do my parents when they decided to take in a young man from Serbia back in the early 90s whom they knew nothing about other than the fact that his parents were desperate to get him out of the country as he was nearing military age. And a little old woman in England I have never met (and who likely died before I was born), but made such an impression on a German POW that he tearfully described to me how she delivered bread daily to the Germans imprisoned at the camp 45 years after it happened.
It only takes one person to change lives, save lives and even change the course of history.
