Hello friends. Its been a while I last dropped something other than a story, I’m almost beginning to think I’m a story-teller. I feel now is a beautiful time we put a pause on fiction and charge ourselves up a bit, considering the fact that we are almost done with the first half of this year! Can you believe that? When was it that we were bidding our friends, neighbours and colleagues happy new year.

Now, let’s hit the ground running! Jesus, within the short period he lived on earth, taught many great principles amongst which were the golden rule (Matthew 7:12, Luke 6:31); the extra mile rule (Matthew 5:41) etc. Another principle I find that Jesus also postulated severally while on the earth was that of changing the world one man at a time. Jesus was particular about the tremendous changes that would come upon the earth if each person will be ready to contribute his own quota. He told his disciples that they were (are) the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-15), he believed that they could change the world. He gave a quick example, ONE little candle can light-up a whole room. The power of one!

Every time I ruminate on the power of one a story always comes up in my mind, it is the story of a pastor who was trying to prepare his sermon to be preached the next Sunday. While in his study room preparing hard to put up something together, his little son of about five (5) years was constantly disturbing him and when he couldn’t find a lasting way of sending the child off to play, he finally came up with an idea – to keep the child busy. So he looked around and fortunately found a map of the world lying in the room. He tore up the map of the world into pieces and gave them to his son with the promise that if the child could correctly fix the pieces together he would get a money reward, the pastor thought to himself that this will keep the child busy for a long time and thus afford him the opportunity to be through with his work, after all what can a 5 year old boy know about geography?

The pastor continued with his work, happy he found a lasting solution. His happiness was cut short as the boy came back after about five minutes with the pieces fixed back together. The father looked at the world map and saw that it was correctly fixed. The pastor didn’t know how the boy could have done this within that short period of time since there was nobody at home that could have helped the boy. So he asked the boy how he overcame the riddle and the boy said,
“at the back of the map is the picture of a man and so I didn’t bother with fixing the world but rather fixing the man since I know that once the man is right then his world would be right!” Simple. A true and great lesson for us all, once the man is right, his world will be right.

A search through the Bible shows that all God is looking for in the world is just one man that will change the world. Lets begin our journey from the garden of Eden, HE only created one man, Adam; when he was to destroy the world with flood, HE found just one man with whom he would start all over, Noah; when he was to start the new world order, HE chose just one man, Abraham; in HIS anger, when HE wanted to destroy Israel in the wilderness, HE was ready to start with just one man, Moses; in HIS redemptive work, HE sent just one man, Jesus. And that one man, Jesus was particular about the great change each one of us can make in the world.

Many times we sit down wishing things would change in our world, our nation, our community etc. We forget that we can start in our little way with the change we desire. You remember what the wise man said, if you don’t like what you are seeing in your world, change what you’re doing. Like wild fire your action could be picked up and you’d be surprised at what change you have spearheaded. There is this awesome word in the English language – NICHE. I once studied the word and found out its full meaning – Its a place where one single individual stands to change things, its a small corner of the world where one man makes world-reaching impact. Its a tiny spot on the world map but with far-reaching influence.

I understand perfectly that we are sometimes inhibited by the thought that whatever we do now can only be small, so we want to wait till when we can do BIG things. Someone with that kind of mindset was reported to have said,
“Give me a place to stand and I will move the world.” A contemporary of his was then reported to have replied that,
“Let him that will move the world first move himself.” Simply, it means the big change must start small. We often forget that big things start small. He that would do big things will start practising with little things.

Let’s round up our talk with the words written on the tomb of a Bishop in Westminster Abbey in 1100 AD, it reads:
“When I was young and free and dreamed and my imagination had no limits I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser and realised the world would not change I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country: but it too seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years I settled on changing only my family and those closest to me, but alas they would have none of it. Now as I lay on my deathbed and I suddenly realize that if I had only changed myself first, then by example I could perhaps have changed my family, and from their inspiration and encouragement to me I would have been better able to help my country and from there I may even have been able to change the world.”

History books are filled with the stories of “one man” who changed their worlds. The world is presently in dire need of change agents. We can change the world if we are ready to take the small steps. I might be just one man, but from my niche I can do much, and so can you too. You know what the HIV jingle says – It begins with you. A changed world begins with you, that’s the power of one in motion.

I am @seunalade