Twilight's Disciples Forum "Can One Man Make A Diffe..

Well, in answer to my title question, I would say YES. However, what do I actually mean? In terms of helping yourself, friends and others. But, in terms of helping the wider community, or beyond, that is far less easy to accomplish. Do you agree, I wonder?

Now, what about the related issues, which such a question brings to mind? For example, is it impossible to make a difference to the lives of those who do not genuinely want to change? How patient should you OR the wider community be, in deciding which resources to allocate towards helping such individuals?

Is it sometimes too late to make a difference in the life of another person, no matter how hard you try? Lastly, what about the degree or extent of difference which one man or woman can make? After all, both time and money are scarce resources for most of us - thus restricting the indiviual's capacity to "make a difference". Over to you!

 

Julian

Ooh...hard question.

My knee-jerk reaction is to say YES, one person can make a difference. That idea that a smile to a stranger can make that stranger's day is very true, in my opinion. If everyone in a community went about their lives trying to make a difference every day, I do believe our world would be a very different, and much nicer, place.

That being said, there is a significant portion of the global population who either don't want to be helped, don't want to help, or couldn't care less. Apathy is our nemesis, and far too many people succumb to it in the monotony of daily life. We see it every day--when we walk by the homeless as if we don't see them, when we turn a blind eye to troubling events in the news, or even when we say to our siblings/kids/spouses 'that's your problem, not mine'.

Newsflash to the world: it is our problem.

A person and/or community can only stretch so far to help someone who doesn't want to be helped. Ultimately, the difference each of us must make is a difference in our OWN lives. So that individual who doesn't want to be helped is not a failure of the community, but a failure of himself to himself. Was it Ghandi who said "We must be the change we wish to see in the world"? Whoever said it--he had it spot on.

Just my two cents...long-winded though it was :)

~Katherine

In answer to Katherine's question about the quote it was Mahatama (Mohinder) Gandhi and is one of my favorites, however it is "You must be the change you wish to see in the world".

I guess the answer you seek is in pages of history. For America there are the likes of Martin Luther King, Clara Barton, and more recently, Millard Fuller.

Maybe is was not so much that the changed the world themselves, but the belief that they could change the world, that they inspired others to change their thinking, thus promoting a chain reaction.

Now, as much as we would like to speak of a change for the good, it also works in reverse, meaning there has been those who have created change for the bad. For example, Hitler, or Osma Bin Laden.

 

 

I believe that one person can make a difference to anyone they cross paths with.  It is by example, and the way we live that can encourage another to change.  It's also our openess and willingness to get to know them, and create a sort of friendship.  There are times when you try and try to help but it isn't within your power.  It is the person themselves that are choosing which way they go and how they live.  I would never give up on them, but may have to remove myself from them due to having my own family and it may not be good to have a certain behavior around a family atmosphere.  I would leave it up to God and pray for them.

World-wide difference? No, many have tried, no one really succeeded.
Individual difference to specific and isolated people? Yes, most certainly, how many of you have heard the expression: "He/She/It changed my life a long time ago, and now I'm..."
Personal difference? Again yes, it is most certain when someone really desperates for change in his/her life, change could be achieved.

i do think one man can make a difference. if he truly strives to do well in everything anybody can make a difference. as for the whole community thing and the whole world blah, yes, it is hard to do, in my honest opinion, i think people do try to make the world a better place and all that, but somehow, along the way, they encounter trials that well, hinder their plans of doing so. hmmm, there are others such as myself who try to change the world little by little, but then well, i can say this for myself that i dont think that i would seriously go out of my way to try and  change things. see, im  a typical person who goes her own way doing her own thing, but still, somehow, since i was brought up in such a way that i have to do things like put the trash in the right can, or something, well, even if its just a little way of doing or helping out in the community, at least in some way i am able to help. so does that make a difference? i think yes. in some way, it does.

so going back to your question, one man can make a difference. and if we do try to really work on it without being hindered by our prejudices and other issues, i think we can work together and do something, that not just one person can do, but for the whole lot of us as well...:)
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