By Joseph Burkuras, Columnist
Having a sense of purpose is the best feeling there is.
What if I told you that you could take the incredible feeling of purpose, curl it up into a little ball, hold it in the palm of your hand and go anywhere in the world with it? What if I told you although that ball was so little, you had an unlimited supply of this purpose and could spread it to the whole world? Wouldn’t that be miraculous?
You might be thinking, “Yes, this would be miraculous but it’s not realistic.” Without God’s grace, you’re right. The odds you’d reach the whole world would not be likely. But with God’s grace, you do hold this power in your hands.
How, you may ask?
Try and think about a time you did a simple and kind act for someone. It can be as basic as opening the door for the person behind you, telling your mom or dad that you love them, giving a homeless person on the street a few bucks you had hanging around in your wallet or even just giving your friend a simple compliment.
These are just a few examples of thousands of kind acts that you may have done.
Let’s say, perhaps, you thought about the time you asked your friend how they were doing. We all know each day can be overwhelming and it feels good when someone takes an interest in our lives.
Wouldn’t you agree that if everyone, from time to time, checked in on how their friends were doing, then each person would feel a little more cared about and purposeful throughout their day?
By doing something simple and kind like asking a friend how they are doing, you can give someone a feeling of purposefulness and self-worth. Mother Teresa once said, “Every work of love done with a full heart brings people closer to God.”
You may now be thinking, “Okay, but this only gives one person a sense of purpose. I thought you said I could spread purpose to the whole world?”
The way you do this is through, what author Matthew Kelly calls, spiritual multiplication. Spiritual multiplication is the foundational strategy for spreading our Catholic faith.
If I asked you to drop everything, go to a certain part of the world and begin evangelizing until all 7 billion people had experienced kindness and felt a sense of purpose, your jaw may drop in self-doubt and disbelief at your mission. I know mine sure would.
But if I asked you to enter into deep prayer to our Lord in order to be present to three people and teach them how to do a simple and kind act for another, then you might be a bit more optimistic. Along with more grace from God, if I asked you to teach those three people each how to disciple to three more people through a kind and simple act, you might even say that’s very possible!
If you ask three people, and each of them asks three, and each of those three ask three, then this would only take 20 cycles to spread a feeling of purpose to everybody on planet earth. Do the math yourself and you will see the numbers add up to over 7 billion!
This idea is neither radical nor far fetched. Everyone has the ability to go out and do this and you, God willing, could get three of your friends to do the same. This strategy is not new. In fact, it is ancient. Jesus Christ himself put faith in only 12 apostles to spread His life of truth and salvation to all people on earth.
Christ began with 12 and today there at 2.3 billion Christians around the globe. Most of this evangelization was done before the time of social media, cell phones, email, and when most of the travel was by boat or foot. 12 to 2.3 billion. This was done through His divinely planned spiritual multiplication.
Today, it seems we have an unlimited array of tools that connect us to people all over the globe. To name a few: Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, VSCO, Venmo, Email, Text, Fax, and Letter sending are all ways we can connect with others at an extremely efficient and effective rate.
The Apostle Peter baptized 3,000 men, women and children in one day. If the Apostles could achieve such great feats 2,000 years ago, then it would be foolish to question our abilities to share Christ’s love now.
Spiritual multiplication, coupled with the divine grace of God, is our guide to spread the truth of Jesus Christ’s life on earth. The way you change the whole world is not by starting with the masses. On the contrary, the way you change the world is by spreading Christ’s love to one person at a time.