The Power of One

This fall BridgePoint is beginning a campaign that we hope will turn into a movement. We are calling it One. The longer version would be The Power of One. Before I go further let me say I know there is a campaign out there called One. It was started by U2's Bono. It is a campaign to fight extreme poverty and disease. We in no way are trying to steal their thing. In fact we will be encouraging our people to get involved with One. If you would like more information go to www.one.org and see what they are doing. What we are doing at BP is expanding into the spiritual truths of One. The power of The One, Jesus Christ.

I really am excited about where we are going and will from time to time be blogging about our experience.

Today I was thinking about the power of one and how I could illustrate that for our people. I am sure you have all heard the example of taking a penny and doubling it every day for 27 days. If you do that at the end of the 27th day your 1 penny would become $1,320,417.20. WOW! The power of that one penny reproducing itself is incredible.

Another example is one I have used in youth talks for years. I found it in a little book called "Boiling Water in a Paper Cup and other unbelievables." It was a book I checked out from the Winter Haven High School library in the 10th grade and never returned. I'd hate to see that fee!

In the book is another example of the power of one. Suppose it were possible to cut a large sheet of paper in half, then in quarters, eighths, sixteenths and so on for 53 cuttings. If you then piled up all of those pieces of paper, one on top of the other, how high would your pile be? The answer is hard to believe. That pile of paper would be 350 million miles high!

Now, you might be saying what does that have to do with one? You're talking about many more pennies and pieces of paper than one. What I'm talking about is the power of that first, one. The power of the first penny. The power of that first piece of paper and it's first cut. If you and I would realize the power we have to begin a movement simply by duplicating or reproducing ourselves and then teaching those who we produce to do the same and so on and so on, we can quickly discover that we can be a part of changing the world. It's that whole "pay it forward" idea.

For those of us who are Christ followers this idea has awesome power. Often times we feel overwhelmed at how far our world has moved away from God, and I am sure if you are like me, you have said "but what can I do about it?", or "it's too big for one person." But when you look at it like the penny or the paper it becomes much more doable. There's power in your oneness!

All we have to do is focus on the "one" opportunities that God gives us. We need to take advantage of that one chance, have that one conversation, take that one step, share our one story and make that one effort. If we do, and then teach others to do the same, we will see the power of one. We will reach our world and make the impact God wants us to make.

I'm sure I will visit this idea many more times in the future. Remember, there's power in your oneness!

Tim