A Anato Swu
Satakha Town
The Leaky Bucket
The water carrier went back and forth
Each day
From the well to the village,
He carried two leather buckets,
One old and leaky,
The other new and shiny.
One day the old leaky bucket objected.
“Why,” he said,
“Do you continue to use me, old man?
Look at your new bucket.
Each time you get to the village it is still full
While I am half-empty.
I make you work twice as hard.”
The old water carrier laughed.
“Have you not noticed the flowers,” he said,
“On your side of the path?
I water them every day,
Using your leaks,
There are no flowers on the other side of the path for
No water spills on that side.”
(Extract from “The Grace of Giving”
by Dr John F. DeVries)
How many of us feel like that old, leaky water bucket? We feel discouraged, cast down, insignificant. What does one imperfect tiny life matter? The world needs Change; our society needs reformation and you wish you could do something about it, but you think you are so small and can hardly make any significant impact. You feel angry, disappointed and sad...
Most of us tend to give up trying to effect the change we seek in our family, community...and in our part of the world. But you say to yourself, What can one small man do, but dream away disheartened- pondering and thinking, at times, if God has given up on us.
Take heart, beloved brethren. There’s still hope and God ain’t dead! He watches close- silently and patiently- holding onto His Faithfulness and Grace although He may seem far away.
Unseen, HE is at work...manifesting and “flowing out of our so called self-assumed hopeless self”. And so long we have the gift of a new dawn in our hand, we ought to realise, that no matter what we think about our “giving-up-attitude; selves” God still has a purpose for our “leaky life”!
And you and I stand to live and play our part in realizing our dream of a better world, and allowing Him to reign in our lives while enacting our given roles which majority of us have been ignoring.
Let’s recommit ourselves today and ponder on what, you and I, as individuals can do in order to be used by our Creator to realize our dreams and aspirations for a “cultured and a civilized mankind”.
We realize the need and importance of CHANGE in our society. From a mere public to the great leaders in the present social, economic, religious and political dispensation, mighty talks about the express need of CHANGE have been echoed through political/public platforms, social networking groups and print media. Sadly, the effects of these “talks sans action” have had little/or no impact.
Today’s write up is this writer’s perspective on how to effect Change by a single, disheartened person in our part of the World.
We read that the great empires and governments, and wars change the course of history and the face of the World, so sometimes we’re discouraged and think, “Well, who am I? What can I do? It all seems hopeless and IMPOSSIBLE! It looks like there’s nothing that one person can do to change things for the better, so what’s the use of trying, what’s the use of trying anything?”- And we are tempted to give up and let the world go to HELL, which it sometimes seems to deserve.
But despair not, and don’t give up! The foundation of Change we desire lies within us… If you have changed one life (maybe your life), you have changed a part of the world, and you have proven that there is a Hope and that it can ALL be changed! If one life can be changed then there’s a possibility that more lives can be changed, whole locality/region can be changed and the World can be changed, starting with just one person—maybe you!
You say, you can’t change the World? It’s too late, too bad, too big, and just too difficult? Well, why don’t you start with your OWN HEART, your OWN MIND, your OWN SPIRIT, and your OWN LIFE? If you’ve even changed your life, you’ve changed a whole universe, the UNIVERSE OF YOUR LIFE.
The place and the atmosphere around you will be changed. Change not only your own life but those of your OWN FAMILY, of your OWN HOME! You’ll then have a new home, a new family, with new lives and new spirits filled with the truth and life and love of God. Then the whole home will have been changed, and that’s a whole world, YOUR WORLD!
Then your little family can start trying to change the NEIGHBOURS and YOUR FRIENDS, BUSINESS ASSOCIATES or SCHOOLMATES, VISITORS etc. you can start individually, personally, just YOU, your little family, just planting SEEDS one by one, in heart by heart, day by day into that empty hole of an empty heart. It may seem only a little bud at first, just little sprig just one insignificant little green shoot. What is that to the forest that is needed? Well, IT’S A BEGINNING. It’s a beginning of the miracle of a new life and it will thrive and grow and flourish and become strong, turning into a whole tree, a whole new life, and perhaps a whole new world! SO WHY NOT TRY IT?
YOU say you can’t change the World and wait for others or the World to change? – Well, why don’t you try? Why don’t you try changing your part of the World, the World of your life- your family, your neighbors, your town, and JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!! WHEN you do what you are supposed to do, day by day, hole by hole, heart by heart, you are bound to reap a harvest. Not all may grow, but surely some would grow healthy to give you a rich harvest. (Matthew 13; 18-23). God works in mysterious ways, and, you and I, no matter how “leaky” we might be, HE still has a purpose for us, and that’d be to firstly, effect change in our lives which may serve as the starting point towards fulfilling HIS purpose behind our creation.
