“How many people do you think you’re going to save?” my uncle asked as I sat down with him to ask for financial support going into my first year with FOCUS. “Well,” I replied, “if I help one person find a deeper relationship with Jesus that will be enough for me.”
It just so happened that regardless of how many students I impacted in the three years I was a missionary, my own heart is the one that was transformed forever.
This idea of “one over many” has been ringing in my heart for a few months now. Maybe it’s because after I got married in November I moved to a town of less than 1,000 people and feel somewhat unknown. It also might be the lie of comparison that often creeps into my heart when I see other businesses that have 80k followers on social media, when it feels like everyone is doing it better than me.
But the TRUTH is, we have a GOOD GOD that is a good Father and sees all of these parts of my heart and speaks so gently into them. He says, “I’m not asking you to reach the world, Hannah, I’m asking you to encounter One.” The One, over the many. Because in reality, will I become a saint by becoming an influencer? Did the world around St. Therese buy the latest trend because she posted about it? The other sisters in her convent couldn’t even stand her! And yet, she is one of the most influential saints we have.
The influence I want to have is the one St. Clare of Assist had as she held up the Monstrance and soldiers coming at her convent fell to their knees in the sight of Jesus in the Eucharist.
I want to have influence like Mary, who silently kept everything in her heart and took the next step down the road of Calvary knowing the God she served had a redemptive plan for the suffering she was experiencing.
So this might be a message you need, or maybe it’s just a message that I myself need, but let’s stop focusing on the many- the many likes, the many views, the many followers, and start focusing on the One.