The difference of one....

I sat on my couch tonight watching a special on NBC about a medical missionary team in Haiti. While watching it, I was flooded with memories of being there almost 6 months ago now. I miss the kids, our translators, the orphanage, I miss the kindness of the people, I even miss the damn goats (even though they were loud and obnoxious). On the NBC special, the newscaster asked the head of the mission team about how difficult it must be for a team to enter, stay for a short while, and then leave. The mission team leader responded with one of my favorite stories, the starfish story. 

While walking along a beach, an elderly gentleman saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up and throwing it into the ocean.

As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, picking up starfish one by one and tossing each one gently back into the water.

He came closer still and called out, “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.” 

The old man smiled, and said, “I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?”

To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”

Upon hearing this, the elderly observer commented, “But, young man, do you not realise that there are miles and miles of beach and there are thousands of starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The young man listened politely. Then he bent down, picked up another starfish, threw it into the back into the ocean past the breaking waves and said, “It made a difference for that one.”

Call me naive, or ignorant to think that I can make a difference as one person. Maybe I'm too optimistic for my own good, but I truly believe that with the grace and strength that God gives each of us, we can and do make a difference. There may be miles and miles of poverty, destruction, hunger, violence, and evil that seems overwhelming and unmanageable. One person can't assume they can fix it all, but everyone has the ability to throw at least one starfish back into the ocean. 

                                                                                  <3