In light of the passing of Steve Jobs last year, we are reminded how, in his commencement address to Stanford’s 2005 graduating class Steven Jobs, founder of Apple Computer, shared how he and his friend, Woz, started Apple in his garage and within ten years it grew to a $2 billion company. He also shared how he was fired from his own organization and in his words, “I didn’t see it then, but getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

“During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, and another company named Pixar. Pixar went on to create the world’s first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance.”²

Not to the same degree by any means, but in a similar way this is how ACTS was started. At the time I was the South Australian director of a well-known youth organization. I changed our approach to ministry by commencing direct mail evangelism and included reaching adults as well as teenagers. I was told by the powers that be that my ministry didn’t fit the required role and was asked to either give up my ministry, stay with the current methods (which weren’t working that great anyhow), or get out of the organization. I chose the latter. It, too, was the best thing that happened to me at the time—as frightening as it was. Like you, I’ve been through other seeming crises, too, which have all turned out far better than I could have ever dreamed or hoped for.

So, if it seems like your world is crumbling around you and your life is truly committed to God and his will for your life, choose to trust your life to him, and, in time, you too will discover that all things do work together for good for “those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank you for every crisis in my life that you have made to work for good, and turned into a blessing beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Romans 8:28 (NIV).

2. www.snopes.com/glurge/stevejobs.asp

Albert Einstein, who discovered the theory of relativity, asked, “What would a light wave look like to someone keeping pace with it?”

Bill Bowerman, inventor of Nike shoes, questioned, “What happens if I pour rubber into my waffle iron?”

Fred Smith, founder of Federal Express, reasoned, “Why can’t there be reliable overnight mail service?”

Godfrey Hounsfield, inventor of the CAT scanner, asked, “Why can’t we see in three dimensions what is inside a human body without cutting it open?”

And Masaru Ibuka, honorary chairman of the Sony Corporation who came up with the idea for the Sony Walkman, queried, “Why don’t we remove the recording function and speaker and put headphones in the recorder?”

Asking the right questions is one of the fundamental keys for opening the mind to new ideas, some of which have made profound changes for mankind. However, whenever people come up with new ideas, they need courage to overcome the criticisms of negative people who seem to feel that their calling in life is to discourage creative thinkers and productive change.

For instance, shoe makers called Nike’s idea for waffle shoes stupid. Godfrey Hounsfield’s CAT scan idea was seen as “impractical.” Masaru Ibuka was asked if he was crazy when he proposed the idea for the Sony walkman and Fred Smith wrote a paper at Yale suggesting the idea for Federal Express—and got a “C” grade!

We, too, like the Christians in Berea, need to question doctrines we are taught to make sure they are biblical and not just outmoded traditions of man that can “kill” the church, and be constantly open to and actively seeking better ways of doing things for improving the quality of life for ourselves and others. And, most of all, we need to be open to what God is doing, or wanting to do, in our own life, in our church, in our community, and in our nation—and get in on his plans.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me not to accept everything I hear, but to test it to see if it is true. And help me to be open to change where change is needed and where I need to change, and help me to be a change agent for you. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Acts 17:11 (TLB)(NLT).

Some of us have the idea that our life can’t make much of a difference. Sometimes we think, “What can one person do?” This reminds me of the man who, when walking along the beach, kept picking up starfish that had been washed ashore. There must have been hundreds of them. One by one he picked them up and threw each back into the ocean.

A stranger watching said to the man, “Why are you doing that? There are so many starfish on the beach. What you are doing makes no difference.”

“Makes a difference to that one,” the man replied as he threw another starfish back into the ocean.

Robert Kennedy once said, “Many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single person. A young monk began the Protestant Reformation … It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New World, and it was the 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal.”

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in a bus to a white man on December 1, 1955, she triggered the civil rights movement in the U.S.A. In so doing she played a key role that changed a nation.

And it was a motley band of twelve very ordinary men—unsophisticated and uneducated—whom Jesus chose for his disciples to introduce the Christian message to pretty much a hostile world.

You and I may not achieve such greatness but we can make a difference. We do so every time we stand up for what is right, lend a helping hand to a friend or stranger in need, and help communicate the love of God and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Added up, our small ripples blend together to reach ever-widening circles. In so doing, one life does make a difference and can make an impact for Christ in our corner of the world.

As Edward Everett Hale said, “I am only one, but I am one. I can’t do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God, I will.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, I’m available. Please help and use me to make a difference in somebody’s life today. Help me to be as Jesus in some way to every life I touch. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

NOTE: For a simple and attractive way to help reach friends, family and contacts with the saving gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, please consider joining with us as a “People Power for Jesus Partner.” For more information go to: www.actsweb.org/people_power02.php.

1. Matthew 4:19 (NIV).

Besides wishing each other a very Happy New Year, may we all make a New Year resolution to be more effective encouragers of each other—and especially so of our loved ones.

Dr. Ernest Mellor wrote how he and his wife, “Sat charmed at an outdoor performance by young Suzuki violin students. After the concert, an instructor spoke briefly on how children as young as two, three and four years old are taught to play violin. The first thing the children learn, he said, is a proper stance. And the second thing the children learn—even before they pick up the violin—is how to take a bow. ‘If the children just play the violin and stop, people may forget to show their appreciation,’ the instructor said. ‘But when the children bow, the audience invariably applauds. And applause is the best motivator we’ve found to make children feel good about performing and want to do it well.’

“Adults love applause too. Being affirmed makes us feel wonderful. If you want to rekindle or keep the flame of love glowing in your marriage through the years, try showing and expressing your appreciation for your mate. Put some applause in your marriage and watch love grow.”²

Meaningful applause—whether by hand clapping or with our words—is one the most effective and easiest ways to encourage one another. The word “encourage” comes from “en” meaning in, and “courage.” It means to put courage into another—and that’s something every one of us can do—so let’s do it often from a sincere heart.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, please help me always to applaud and encourage my loved ones and friends when such is well earned, not just as a means of ‘being outwardly nice’ or to flatter, but out of a genuine heart of appreciation. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV).

2. Dr. Ernest Mellor, in Homemade, November, 1984.