How One Person Can Save the World
Once the universe was set in motion and an earth was created on which life and truth could thrive, God introduced into it a partner—the human being; our forefather, Adam. Removing Adam’s rib, God separated humanity into male and female, creating eve as a companion and co-heir to Adam: “Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh,” as Adam later described her. Man and woman were each individual and unique, but as they were taken one from the other, they were never truly whole again without each other. It is a dichotomy we still struggle with today—the need to be individual, distinctive, and whole on our own, and yet we can never be totally complete without others. As Donne put it, “no man [or woman] is an island.”
We have the need to be connected, loved, and fully known, and yet at the same time we need space to look inward, reflect, and sit with our own souls. We are part of each other to a greater extent than simply being made up of the same stuff as the universe; we are in each other more than we are in the universe and the universe is in us—but at the same time, we are each a universe unto ourselves.And, oddly enough, the universe needs us to fulfill our potential so that it can operate at its potential. As Romans 8:19–21 puts it:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons [and daughters] of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
When humanity lives separately and corruptly, there are ramifications for our planet. While they are often called “acts of God,” they are truly anything but that. earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and the like are not a result of God’s divine creation, but of the fall of Adam and eve and the sin that continues on the earth. When I use the word sin, I am not merely speaking of moral failures, but man’s failure to do life with God rather than life separate from Him. However, moral corruption feeds environmental corruption, sometimes directly in the sense of pollution and poor stewardship of our natural world and its resources, and sometimes less directly through natural disasters. While some try to make direct connections—e.g., saying that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans because it was a sinful city and that the more recent hurricane in Japan struck there because Japan rejected God—I don’t think it works that way. Matthew 5:45 tells us, “For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” meaning that when such things happen, they happen indiscriminately.
Hurricane Katrina, the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and the destructive tornadoes that tear through Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, or anywhere else are not the result of things done in those specific areas; rather, they are the result of the general corruption on the earth through the corruption of human souls. The earth cries out for redemption just as do the souls of mankind. As Romans 8 puts it, the earth is crying out for us to manifest ourselves as the children of God we were created to be. The creative power of righteousness in us affects the very environment around us. Or, as science has found, what we pay attention to changes just by our turning our focus toward it. Or, to paraphrase Chesterton, “Who is responsible for the earthquake in Haiti? I am. Therefore, who needs to lend a helping hand to those who were struck by it? I do.” Unless individuals act, nothing is going to change.Thus the place to start in “saving the world” is not necessarily doing some grandiose thing to be counted among the likes of Nelson Mandela, martin Luther king Jr., Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi, Susan B. Anthony, or Abraham Lincoln, but becoming the authentic people we were created to be. Men and women like these simply followed their hearts; they did what they felt was right day in and day out, and when that preparation met opportunity, the world became that much more “right” because of their individual impacts.The power of a single human soul living in the fullness of its unique expression is always underestimated. There is no greater conspiracy than the one of evil contriving to keep you and me from becoming our authentic selves.
Ripples of hope can be felt and absorbed only if each distinct individual connects with others who bring their own cadre of diverse talents, mental acuities, and even idiosyncrasies to the whole body. Your “I” value is so vital to adding to the world commodity that allowing it to diminish or fade in any way prohibits the fullness of abundant life that Christ came to offer.
Choosing to embrace the “I” of today and shed the “you” of yesteryears will advance the manifestation of yourself as a child of God, releasing the creative power of righteousness that affects the physical and spiritual environment around you.Determine today what unhealthy habits and detrimental reactions, born in the past and nourished through the years, must be dealt with—replacing each with healthy habits, honorable attitudes, and respectful reactions to other “I’s” who make up the whole of you. If need be, write the changes you want to make and tick off each one, day after day, until they become second nature.
