“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Esther 4:14 

In my devotion time this morning I was in Joshua Chapter 7. The story is about how Achan, a soldier in the Israelite army, disobeyed God’s command. He took items from Jericho for himself when it was supposed to be the Lords. This sin cost him and his family their lives. They were all taken outside the camp and stoned to death. His sin also led to 36 men in the Israelite army losing their lives and the army losing the battle at Ai as well. When we choose to sin it does not just affect us but can impact thousands of others. 

As I read this devotion I was reminded of something that happened here in Traverse City just a few miles from my home. There was a young man who decided one night to get drunk and get on his motorcycle and ride toward home. It was getting dark out. As he was starting up a hill he swerved right in front of an oncoming semi that was carrying gas. The semi driver did not want to hit the motorcyclist so he swerved and ended up going off the road and down an embankment. The truck and trailer tipped on its side. The gas leaked out of the tank. The driver of the semi was injured and needed to be taken to the hospital. 

The township had to shut down traffic on that road for a long period of time because of the hazardous spill. This was a very heavily traveled road. It caused a lot of backup in the traffic throughout the entire city. 

One morning as I was headed for work and now sitting in that traffic I said to myself, one man decided to make a wrong choice and now an entire city was affected. At first the whole road was shut down. They had to work in the area of the spill digging up the ground that was contaminated. Truck loads of soil were taken off the property. Once that was done the road was then down to one lane for quite a while.

There was also a home very close where the gas was spilled that was for sale at the time of the accident. The owners now had to take the home off the market and wait for the contamination to be cleaned up. To this day there are still white pipes sticking up in multiple places where the gas spill happened. They are still checking the ground for contamination and this was years back.

One person making a wrong foolish choice affected an entire city. 

Now I want to flip the story to some good news. Just as one person’s sin can affect so many, so too can a life of one making the right choices affect many. Just one life that is willing to live sold out and in full obedience to the Lord can change the world!

I want to give you a few examples:  

Billy Graham led millions to Christ through his gift of evangelism.

Corrie Ten Boom traveled the word to share her message of forgiveness and hope in Christ.

Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Peter Flemming and Roger Youderian were all martyred because of witnessing to the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador. That entire tribe came to accept Jesus as their Savior. Before this they were spearing each other to death almost to the point of extinction.

I have a collection of about 50 books of the saints that have gone on before us. Each one of them is a story of full surrender, obedience and humbleness to the Lord. I think they all knew that it only takes one walking in this faith with the Lord to change the world. They each chose to be that one. 

It only takes one.