"Challenges" are constant in my news feed. You probably know the ones I mean. Different time frames, different aspects of life, different groups of people, but all encouraging improvement in some way. These challenges are great. I love goal setting and personal development. But honestly, if I participated in all of these challenges, I wouldn't have time to see straight. So when I saw a blog post entitled "The One Thing: 10 Week Challenge" I did not even click on it.
Nope. Not interested.
But it kept showing up. Over and over it appeared. It wasn't because multiple people were sharing it. It was just the same original post, showing up at different places and different days. Coincidence? I don't think it was. It took until maybe the 3rd or 4th (ok, maybe 5th) time that it showed up randomly in my newsfeed to read it. I'm so glad I did.
Nope. Not interested.
But it kept showing up. Over and over it appeared. It wasn't because multiple people were sharing it. It was just the same original post, showing up at different places and different days. Coincidence? I don't think it was. It took until maybe the 3rd or 4th (ok, maybe 5th) time that it showed up randomly in my newsfeed to read it. I'm so glad I did.
Over on MultiplyGoodness.com, a 10 week challenge was issued (which was actually given to students at the author's son's white coat ceremony) that I wanted to share. You can go read the original post there, but I'll give you the gist of it here. It's this:
Every day, ask God for one thing that you can do for Him. Write it down. Accomplish it.
That's it. Do one thing.
I decided to take this challenge. It's so doable, right? Everyone, no matter how busy they are, has time to do One Thing. One Thing for Heavenly Father; the One who gives us Every Thing. Not only is it amazingly simple, but it's been wonderfully powerful. Sometimes my One Thing is seemingly trivial, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's a little outside my comfort zone, sometimes it's completely comfortable. Sometimes I know it's my One Thing as I do it, and other times I look back at the day before I realize I did what He wanted. Sometimes I start out the day knowing what my One Thing is going to be, and sometimes I don't. But they come. As I intentionally pray, every day I have at least one specific thing that He gives me to do for Him.
I decided to take this challenge. It's so doable, right? Everyone, no matter how busy they are, has time to do One Thing. One Thing for Heavenly Father; the One who gives us Every Thing. Not only is it amazingly simple, but it's been wonderfully powerful. Sometimes my One Thing is seemingly trivial, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's a little outside my comfort zone, sometimes it's completely comfortable. Sometimes I know it's my One Thing as I do it, and other times I look back at the day before I realize I did what He wanted. Sometimes I start out the day knowing what my One Thing is going to be, and sometimes I don't. But they come. As I intentionally pray, every day I have at least one specific thing that He gives me to do for Him.
There's a story in the Bible, told in Matthew (14), Mark (6), Luke (9) and John (6) about Christ feeding the multitudes. They are out in the desert, Jesus has been teaching thousands of people. Now the day is over, and the disciples (likely ready for the evening meal) approach Him to ask Him to tell the multitudes to disperse to get food and drink in the surrounding communities. Instead, the Lord tells His disciples, "Give ye them to eat." I can imagine having a similar reaction to the disciples at this point.
"Wait, what? All we have is 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. That's not nearly enough, unless we go buy food for everyone. And we are virtually penniless, so that's not happening. There's no way we can feed any, let alone all of these people."
Instead of agreeing that the bread and fish are not enough, the Lord directs them to gather what they have. He gives thanks for it, blesses it, and directs it to be dispersed among the people. Then two miracles occur.
"Wait, what? All we have is 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. That's not nearly enough, unless we go buy food for everyone. And we are virtually penniless, so that's not happening. There's no way we can feed any, let alone all of these people."
Instead of agreeing that the bread and fish are not enough, the Lord directs them to gather what they have. He gives thanks for it, blesses it, and directs it to be dispersed among the people. Then two miracles occur.
Miracle #1. What they do have is enough.
Miracle #2. There is an abundance left over.
This was a powerful lesson to me in conjunction with this challenge. What I have is enough.
What you can do, is enough.
Guys; one specific, intentional thing for Him, is enough.
When you give one thing to Him and dedicate it to His purposes, your abilities, talents, and capacity to act will be multiplied in ways you could never have foreseen. 5 loaves and 2 fishes feed 5,000 men and their families with multiple baskets of food left over. I wish I could tell you what this 'challenge' has done for me, what the Lord is doing for me. But it would be infinitely better to discover it for yourself.
If you want a powerfully simple way to know Jesus Christ, to increase your service to Him, I invite you to start daily with One Thing.
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