JUST ONE

Have you ever caught yourself thinking your life is not that important?

Maybe you are just a plain, ordinary person interacting with one person at a time in your life rather than being a famous, well known actor, singer, artist, etc.  I think a lot of us might just fall into that category of ordinary people!

My thoughts turned to the theme of “just one” recently as an independent Christian musician, Dave Pettigrew, I know was touring with another artist, John Waller, who I had not heard of before. It was pretty cool to learn that I had technically heard John sing before because he sang “While I’m Waiting” and “Crazy Faith” featured in the movies Fireproof and War Room respectively.

 

In fact, it was interesting to learn that the two musicians had not even met each other before either.  Through sharing nine performances together in a short period of time, they have become great buddies and highly respect each other and their ministries.

 

John Waller and Dave Pettigrew

 

I was honored to attend two concerts within a week where Dave was performing with different people.  The second concert was with John.  There were fewer people at this concert which was nice on one hand because of the smaller, intimate environment.

As I was reading Dave’s posts about the daily concerts and the different happenings at them, it was interesting to see that one particular day there were only about 25 people in attendance.  I felt a little bad for the artists because of the great time committment of traveling to a new place every day, gassing up the van after every stop, unloading the equipment, performing, selling their merchandise, taking time to talk, listen and/or pray with people, packing everything back up and moving on to the next place.  It sure entails a lot of work for so few people!

 

What I noticed though is that those days where there were fewer people in attendance, great things still happened; the Lord was at work despite the low numbers.  He heard special stories of what people were going through and his ministry offered them hope. I know the Lord ministered to those that needed it.

 

Dave Pettigrew

 

These artists also have a big heart to help children get sponsored to help them and their families providing education, food, clean water and healthcare for them.

The days of fewer attendance at their concerts were the times when more children were sponsored; their lives forever changed for the better!

 

As a writer who is trying to share the love of Christ and His goodness with others to hopefully help them see something in a little different light, I, too, will sometimes get a little down when I see that only a few people read a particular writing.  When I started this website about 4 1/2 yrs ago, I always said if just one person was helped or ended up seeing something with a fresh perspective, it is all worth it! That is actually a prayer every week that I pray before hitting the “publish” button. Technically though, writing helps ME process my faith and see God’s Presence so it ends up blessing me personally; it draws me closer to Him.

 

May these thoughts remind you this week to not worry about “numbers” so much in your life. 

Each day is an opportunity to minister to that ONE person….bless just ONE PERSON. 

Be on the lookout for that blessing every day.  It has rung so true in my life.  You will see God’s perfect timing in a small situation that just might end up making you SMILE!  🙂

 

 

One day last week, it was warmer out so I headed outside to go for a walk; truth be told I opted to go for a walk to Dunkin Donuts which is in a different direction than I usually go walking.  It was God’s perfect timing that I ended up running into one of my neighbors who I knew recently was grieving the one year anniversary of losing her mom.  She first shared about her rough day as when we greeted each other you could sense the relief that  the work day was over. We ended up conversing for a few minutes which I do believe blessed her day; hopefully changing it for the better knowing someone cared.

What was also neat is that a neighborhood boy came over and began talking to that neighbor, who is actually a principal at a nearby school. He has moved on from that school and said that he was glad he had a good foundation from her school to help him where he currently is.  I couldn’t help but think that must have brightened her day too.

 

 

In pondering this thought of “just one” I couldn’t help but think about the Bible story of the Lost Sheep.

What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?   And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.  –Matthew 18:12-13  (NIV)

 

I think this parable lets us know how indeed Jesus cares about JUST ONE….He will continue to pursue that one showing us the importance of just one life.

And, you know what else, if YOU were the only one that God created, He still would have sent Jesus, His only Son, to die for you!  You would be that JUST ONE…You are that special to God!

 

Keep making a difference this week, day by day, in the life of just one!

 

For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.  –Romans 5:17  (ESV)

**As a side note, for any interested FB users, Dave hosts a FB worship live stream at 8 pm on Monday nights and a Thirty Minute Thursday stream at 8 pm.  You can search FB for “Monday Night Worship – dave pettigrew.”  It is a great community of believers that support each other and get some great worship time right from the comfort of your home!