Is there any doubt that the world is a mess? Barely one night goes by that the evening news does not contain one or several stories of tragedy. Just one study has determined that one billion people on our planet are chronically hungry (read starving to death); two billion don’t have safe drinking water; twenty people are the victims of domestic violence every minute; one third of our daughters and sons are sexually assaulted by the age of thirty; someone is murdered every minute. And these statistics don’t even address the ravages of war and
environmental degradation.
What can be done about it? Can politics, economics and technology solve it? Einstein is quoted as concluding, “No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.” Can Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbour (every one of God’s children) solve it? Is it even remotely possible that an outreach of your love would change dictators and warlords? But might we be discounting Jesus’ teaching prematurely?
What might be the impact of focusing your love on those that cross your path every day? Of course, you already act lovingly to people you know. But what if you focused your love on people you don’t know? What if you expressed love more creatively? What if you continually looked for opportunities to reach out in love at your every encounter? Is there anything to stop you?
What stops me, among other things, is my impatience, judgementalism, defensiveness and self-centredness! In daily encounters, I often react rather than act. What else stops me is uncertainty how I might act. I need to catch myself reacting negatively and actively seek out ways of acting with love - encouraging, coaching, praising, affirming, offering patience, refusing to judge or take offence, overlooking a real offense, making someone feel welcome, standing up for someone, writing a love letter, expressing thanks and countless other ways.
I need to put others first. I need to focus on what could make others feel loved rather than remain preoccupied with my interests.
But, wait! Even if you and I committed to reach out with love once, twice or more times
per day, how could that possibly change the world? In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus teaches that only some seeds fall on good soil and multiply 30, 60 or 100 times. Might some of those seeds be our daily encounters? Might we become the good soil every time we proactively love? Might we avoid becoming the bad soil by refusing to give into what ever stops us? Might each of our acts of love multiply 30, 60 or 100 times?
Matthew Kelly’s book, holy moments, maintains that they will. His conviction is based on his personal experience. He offers a six-pack of his book free for a small shipping fee. By year end 2022, he had shipped over one million copies. The book develops readers’ mastery of proactively reaching out with love, which he calls a Holy Moment. Each six-pack enables the recipient to produce a Holy Moment each time they give away one of their copies, creating the likelihood that recipient will do the same. Kelly calls this spiritual multiplication - that every seed in good soil can multiply 30, 60 or 100 times.
Can we know Holy Moments can change the world? Can we know they can’t? Kelly’s book presents some convincing math that they might. Without a more probable fix, should we give them a chance?
Are you coming to the point where enough is enough? We can’t fix a broken world alone, but we can do our part. Will you start with a six-pack? Will you embrace or reject Holy Moments? Will you dabble with them or passionately deploy them in your daily life?
Del H. Smith conducts research into life’s meaning and is the award-winning author
of the Amazon Best Seller, Discovering Life’s Purpose.