#46 The Positive Power of One (12/10/02)

By Dr. Robert A. Schuller

My father and I went away for a few days someplace where our phones would not work... so you can imagine that we went a long way away. And there we spent a few days dedicated to the process of doing something we've never done before. Together the two of us spent time in prayer and consultation to come up with a series of messages that we're going to be sharing with you through the rest of this year.

I'm excited because this is a wonderful series of messages that are going to help you become the person that God has intended, and called you to be. This series of messages will be titled, The Positive Power of One. This series is powerful ... it is also positive... and... it is personal. So as you come week after week, and listen week after week, you'll hear the Positive Power of One as it unfolds, and together we discover that one can be an incredibly powerful number.

Most of us have be raised to believe that one is a very, very small number! The fact is one is an enormous number. Think of this: zero times anything is what? Zero. Zero times a billion is still, zero. Yet, what happens when you turn a zero into a one? Zero times God is still zero! Did you hear me?... Zero times God is still zero. Failing to put our lives in His hands and trusting in His grace is tantamount to zero. But, reverse that trend and what happens, God times one, God times you - the number cannot even be counted. When we put anything we have as an individual in the hands of God, the possibilities are infinite.

God x 0 = Zero
God x 1 =Godzillion

In the Old Testament, Judges chapter 6, we read the story of a man who saw himself as just the tiny little number of one.

"Because of the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, and caves and strongholds. For whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Medianites and other Eastern people would invaded the country, camp on the land and ruin the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep, or cattle, nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and tents like swarms of locust. It was impossible to count the men and their camels as they invaded the land to ravage it. "

Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. And the Lord came to Gideon and said, "The Lord is with you mighty warrior." What was Gideon's response? The same as typically would be our response today - "Who am I? ... What do you mean, the Lord is with me mighty warrior?" For Gideon was in hiding, tucked away inside a cave to thresh his wheat because he was so afraid that the Midianites might see the cloud from the flour shaff that clouded the air as he worked. So in this cave he looks at the Angel of the Lord and says, "Who, me? A mighty warrior? Who are you kidding?" Gideon asked,

"How can I save Israel? My family is the weakest, and I am the least in all of my family, and you are telling me that I am a mighty warrior? I am nothing more than one! And the one that I am is the least of the least of the least." (Judges 6:15)

Sound familiar? Do you ever feel that way?

And the Lord answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

The end of the story is of course that Gideon defeated the Midianites, and saved his people. A lesson repeated over and over again in the Holy scriptures that all of the armies in the world cannot defeat the power of God.

Yes, this series The Positive Power of One, will be powerful, and empowering for you as an individual. For one is a big number. But this series will also be positive. For all the power in the world isn't much good if it's negative power. The Midianites represented negative power. We see results every day when negative power is excercised in the hands of negative people. But what happens when power is placed in the hands of positive people is positive power. Mountains are moved, the hungry are fed, the unloved are loved, the world becomes just a little bit better, doesn't it?

Yes, this series of messages is positive, but it won't be Pollyannic. Many people seem to get that confused, for sometimes positive people might become a little Pollyannic. It's like the time I was with my dad. I was just a young boy and I remember my father pulling into gas station where he filled up the car. As we were driving away, all of a sudden we hear this clink, clink, clink off the back of the car. Immediately my Dad said, "Oh my goodness. I forgot to put the gas cap back on." But being the very positive kind of guy that he is very quickly added, "No problem. I'll just get out and find one. Chances are if I don't find gas cap, I'll find someone else's. Certainly if this happened to me, it probably happen to somebody else."

So he stops the car, gets out and starts walking back to look for a gas cap. I sat in the car and waited and sure enough after a few minutes he climbed back in the car with a big smile on his face and said, "Well Robert, I found one. Wasn't mine, but it's even better than the one I had." I said, "Really? What makes it better?" With a big smile he said, "It locks."

This message is positive, for we need to look for the positive in life every day. We need to be optimistic and realize that God is going to take the negative in our lives and turn it into something beautiful.

Like the young boy standing with his grandma to get his face painted at a county fair. This young boy had freckles, lots and lots of freckles. Well, just ahead of the little boy in line was a young girl, and pretty soon she turned around and took one look at the freckle faced boy and said, "You have so many freckles I don't think they'll be able to find a place to paint on your face."

As you can imagine, the poor boy's face just dropped. As he hung his head in embarrassment, his grandma quietly knelt down beside him, put her arm around and said, "Son don't you worry, your face painting will turn out just wonderful. Besides, I love freckles. When I was a little girl I wished that I had had freckles. As a matter of fact, I would have given anything to have the freckles that you have. Freckles are the most beautiful thing in the whole world. In fact I'll bet you can't think of anything more beautiful than a freckle."

Pretty soon the little boy looked up into his grandmother's eyes and said, "Grandma, I can think of one thing more beautiful than a freckle ...a wrinkle." And with that, he gave her a big hug.

Yes, this series of messages is powerful, but it's also positive. And beyond positive it is personal. This series will reach down and and touch our lives where we need that touch and that guidance the most. It will share with us and directs us to that one thing, that one gift that each of us have been blessed with.

I'll never forget classic movie, City Slickers with Billy Crystal. Billy is trying to work his way through a mid-life crisis and decides that the best way to do that is to spend two weeks on a dude ranch herding cattle. Billy meets up with tough old wrangler named Curley played by Jack Palance. In the process Curly explains that, "The meaning of life is one thing ... one thing ... but as an individual you have to decide what that one thing is for you."

I believe through this series of messages, we will find what that meaning is ... the positive power of that one thing can change your life.

In 1981 I started a church in Rancho Capistrano California, and the way in which I started that church was rather unique and different. Originally I was planning to hold services in a drive-in theatre of all things; one of the last remaining drive-in theaters in San Juan Capistrano. In fact, it's not there anymore, but in 1981 it was still there and was a landmark in the community. As a result, I'd gone to the city to get the usual use permits when I ran into a road block; they wouldn't give me one. Looking at this roadblock positively, it was really quite a compliment. After all, the city was concerned that I'd create too many traffic problems. The bottom line was that we were not able to hold services on the exact Sunday that we had announced. The problem was I knew there would be people coming on that first day in September, so out I went with fliers announcing our delay, and to let people know that I would contact them when the challenges were solved and a new location found.

To my surprise, a gentleman showed up that day expecting to come to church, but instead jumped to my aid in handing out the fliers. For several hours we stood there together, greeting our neighbors and friends, and letting them know that they were loved. That man's name was Nate Morrison, a man with a heart as big as all outdoors, and a soul filled with compassion for his fellow man. Today you can find Nate at one of two places in San Juan Capistrano - working the aisles of a local hardware store, or standing at the front door of the Rancho Capistrano Community Church, greeting people and saying, "God loves you and so do I."

Nate found his "one thing" ... to be a positive, happy face for people. All of us have that one thing that God has called us to, and throughout this series of messages I am convinced that we will find the positive power of that one thing. The one thing that makes us unique ... that gives us the ability to soar with wings like eagles ... to remember that God, times this "one thing"... is an incredible number.
Jonathan Von Post wrote a poem [i] that says:

"Less than zero? No. I am more than one. I am more than one half my father and half my mother. And more I am one forth of each of all four grandparents. And more, each brother and each sister is half of me - and I am half of them. And all of the people of the world are my brothers and my sisters."

"I am a represented in every trait I manifest, and more, I take part in every belief I choose to hold. I am in part each thought, memory and feeling but yet more than all parts by themselves."
"I am more than one."

"I am my past, my environment, and my free will. I am half nature, half nurture, and more halves adding to more than one."

"Yes, I am more than one."

"I am conscious and unconscious, and more, I am the record of my history, and the fount of history to come. And more, I am the choice, the chooser, and the chosen. I choose this life, and more."

"Yes, I am more than one."

"I am past, present, future, other when, another where. Less than zero. No, I do not admit too less than infinity! Yes, I am more than one, and so are you."

The Positive Power of One!

Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, remind us each day that of all the gifts You give to us, the greatest gift is the ability to love. Remind us to share this precious gift with those we hold dear. And more, open our hearts not just to those who are close to us, but to all of our human family. Let us be slow to judgment, and quick to forgiveness, patience, empathy and love. Amen.