The Power of I Am: Two Words That Will Change Your Life Today (27 page)

A good friend of mine grew up very poor in the projects. He came from a single-parent family, and there wasn’t always stability in the home. He loved to read and write, and his dream was to become a television journalist. Against all odds, he got a scholarship to a mostly white Ivy League university. He’s African American. His roommate came from a very prestigious, influential family—just the opposite of his family. But these two young men hit it off and became the best of friends. He told his roommate about his desire to
become a television journalist. His roommate said, “If you’re going to be a journalist, you have to have a better vocabulary. You don’t know enough words.” Every day, this roommate would get the dictionary out and teach his friend one new word and have him use it in sentences all through the day. This went on for four straight years. What was this roommate doing? Becoming a miracle. He took the time to care. He realized his friend was in his life for a reason. Today, this young man is one of the top journalists in America. He works for a major network and is seen on one of the most prestigious news programs. But I wonder where he would be if his roommate had not taken the time to become a miracle.

“Well,” you say, “I don’t want to read about being a miracle. I need a miracle.” Here’s the key: If you will become a miracle, God will always make sure that you have the miracles that you need. As long as you’re sowing these seeds, the right people, the right opportunities, and the breaks you need will be in your future. God will get you to where you’re supposed to be. That’s what it says in Proverbs: “When you refresh others, you will be refreshed.” If you want your dream to come to pass, help somebody else’s dream come to pass. If you need a miracle, become a miracle. When you take time to invest in others, the seeds you sow will always come back to you.

I met two ladies after a service a few years ago, who I thought were mother and daughter. But the older lady said, “No, we’re not, but she’s just like my daughter.” She told how before we moved our church from the northeast location of Houston to our new facility, she was very concerned about whether she would be able to continue to come. She’s a widow and not comfortable driving the freeways. One day after a service, she was telling a group of friends her
dilemma. This young lady, whom she had never met, overheard what she was saying, stepped up, and said, “How about I’ll come pick you up each Sunday and bring you?” The lady was very surprised and looked at her and said, “Are you serious? Where do you live?” They lived thirty minutes apart. But that didn’t stop this young lady. She could have thought,
I’d love to help you, but that’s a long way, and I’m busy in my career and gas prices are really high.
Instead, she saw this as an opportunity to become a miracle. Now, every Sunday morning, like clockwork, she pulls up in the older lady’s driveway at nine thirty in the morning and brings her to church. After the older lady told me the story, she hugged the young lady and said, “Joel, she’s my miracle.”

You can’t help everyone, but you can help someone. There are people whom God has put in your path who are connected to your destiny. As you help them rise higher, you will rise higher. As you meet their needs, God will meet your needs. As you become a miracle, God will give you miracles. But just the opposite is true. If we’re too busy to help someone else, we’re not going to have the help we need. If we’re too caught up in our own dreams to invest in others, or too worried about our own problems to encourage somebody else, we’re going to get stuck. Reaching your highest potential is dependent on you helping someone else reach their potential. It’s like a boomerang. When you help somebody else rise higher, it always comes back to you, and you’ll rise higher.

Jesus told a parable in Luke 10 about a man who was walking down a road when he was attacked and beaten by bandits. They left him on the ground, almost dead. In a little while, a priest came by. He
saw the man from a distance and thought,
Boy, he’s in bad shape. He sure needs a miracle. I’ll be praying for him.
He kept on going. Then another man came by, a Levite, or an assistant to the priests, who did a little better. He went over to the man, checked him out, and felt sorry for him. He thought,
This is really unfair. I hope somebody helps him
, and went on down the road.

Then the third man, a Samaritan, came by. Like the first two, he thought,
He sure needs a miracle.
But he took it one step further and said, “You know what? I am his miracle. I’m at the right place at the right time. God put him in my path so I can be a healer, so I can be a restorer, so I can give him a new beginning.” The Samaritan went to him, got down on his knees, and began to care for him. He gave him water from his canteen and took off his scarf and bandaged his wounds. The Samaritan then gently lifted him off the ground, placed him on his animal, and helped him mile after mile as they walked to the nearest city. When they got to the local inn, he prepaid the owner and said, “You take care of him. Let him stay as long as he would like. Give him anything that he needs. And I promise that when I come back, I’ll pay for any extra expenses.”

My question is: Which man are you? It’s easy to get so busy and think,
I don’t have time to help others. I have my own problems.
Helping others can be the key to seeing your situation turn around. The people you see who need encouragement, who need a ride, who need blood, who need help accomplishing a dream—they are opportunities for you to go to a higher level. When you refresh others, you will be refreshed.

It’s interesting that Jesus used a priest as an example in His parable. He couldn’t stop. He had to get to the temple. He had his religious duties to fulfill. He didn’t have time to bother with this man. After all, if he helped him, he might get his white robe bloody or “unclean.” He might not look presentable at the temple. He had
all kinds of excuses. But true religion gets dirty. True religion doesn’t hide behind stained glass or fancy clothes. It goes to where the needs are.

When you get down low to lift somebody up, in God’s eyes, you can’t get any higher. The closest thing to the heart of God is helping hurting people. When you take time to restore the broken, you pour the healing oil on their wounds, encouraging them, wiping away their tears, letting them know that there are new beginnings—that’s the religion Jesus talked about. True religion doesn’t judge people to see if they deserve our help. “Well, she’s in need, but I don’t think she’s living the right kind of life.” “He’s hurting, but it’s his own fault. He’s got the addiction. He brought the trouble on himself.”

Jesus said, “It’s the sick who need the doctor, not the healthy.” God didn’t call us to judge people; He called us to heal people. He called us to restore people. He called us to become their miracles. Anybody can find fault. Anybody can be critical and come up with excuses to pass on by. That’s easy. But where are the people who will take the time to care? Where are the people who will get down and dirty and help love them back into wholeness?

This third man, the Samaritan, immediately went to the man and started helping him, making a difference. He didn’t think twice. He became the miracle. That’s the kind of person I want us to be. Not passersby. Not too busy in our careers or with church work. Not people like the second man who feels sorry for them but says, “I wish it hadn’t happened. I feel bad. I’m going to be praying.” Let’s become the miracle. God is counting on us. You can lift the fallen. You can heal the hurting. You can be a friend to the lonely. You can help a dream come to pass. You are full of miracles.

Popular Christian singer Tammy Trent is a friend of mine. She told how she and her husband, Trent, went to a tropical island for a vacation to celebrate their eleventh wedding anniversary. Trent was a very skilled diver who could go underwater without an air tank for six or seven minutes at a time. They arrived at the beach on the first day so excited. Trent jumped in the water and started exploring the underwater caves. Tammy stayed on the beach to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Ten minutes went by, and she didn’t see a sign of her husband, which made her a little worried. Twenty minutes, still no sign. Thirty minutes, and she still didn’t see Trent. She began to panic and called the authorities. They sent out boats and started looking hour after hour. Unfortunately, they found Trent’s lifeless body the next day.

Tammy was not only in shock and totally devastated, but she was in a foreign country, all alone, with nobody she knew. Her parents immediately made flight arrangements to come the next day. The problem is this all happened on September 10, 2001. The next day was 9/11. All flights were grounded. Tammy was there for days by herself, feeling alone and forgotten. She was so numb she couldn’t even think straight. She finally was able to pray and said, “God, if You still care, send somebody to help me. God, send somebody to let me know that You are still there.”

A few minutes later, there was a knock on her hotel door. It was the housekeeper, an older Jamaican woman. She said, “I don’t mean to get in your business, but when I was cleaning the room next door, I couldn’t help but hear you crying through the walls, and I was wondering if there is anything that I could pray with you about.” Tammy told her what had happened, and the Jamaican housekeeper
put her loving arms around Tammy and held her as though she was her own daughter. That moment, thousands of miles from home, Tammy knew that God was still in control. The housekeeper took the time to be a healer. She was sensitive to the needs around her, even hearing the cries from another room. She knew one reason she was here on Earth was to help wipe away the tears. That day she poured healing oil on Tammy’s wounds. She became a miracle.

The Scripture talks about how one day God will wipe away all the tears. There will be no tragedy, no more sickness, no more pain. But in the meantime, God is counting on you and me to wipe away those tears. Are you lifting the fallen? Are you restoring the broken? Are you taking time to help somebody in need? It’s great to go to church and celebrate. This is important. We come to be encouraged and filled up and strengthened. But our real assignment begins when we leave the building. Look around and find the discouraged. Listen for the cries for help. You may not hear them with your ears, but you can hear them with your heart. You see when somebody is down. All of a sudden you feel that compassion flowing out to them. You think,
I need to take them out to dinner. I need to go encourage them.
Don’t put it off. Don’t be a passerby. That’s God wanting you to bring healing. There’s a tear that needs to be wiped away.

Years ago I went into a restaurant to eat lunch. It was a little diner where you order your food up at the front. As I was walking to the counter, I saw this man sitting at a table by himself. When our eyes
met, he nodded at me, and I immediately felt compassion toward him. I knew I was supposed to encourage him in some way. He was dressed in a nice suit and looked well-to-do. I was in my shorts and had our son, Jonathan, with me. He was about two years old at the time. I thought,
I’m not going to go encourage him. He’s doing just fine.
I kept putting it off and putting it off.

I ordered our food, and on the way out, since the man had nodded at me, I decided to stop by his table. Just being friendly, I said, “Hello. How’s it going?”

He kind of laughed and said, “Not very well. Things are kinda rough.”

I didn’t think much about it. I just smiled and said, “Well, I know this. It’s going to get better.”

He thanked me, and I left. That was the extent of the conversation.

A few months later, I received a letter in the mail from him. He told how he was at the lowest point of his life at that time. He was going through a divorce, and his whole world had fallen apart. For months he had been in depression. But he said, “When you made that statement that it’s going to get better, it was like something reignited on the inside.” That day was a turning point in his life. He came out of the depression. He got his fire back. Today, he is moving forward.

What I want you to see is that I didn’t say anything profound. I didn’t feel chill bumps when I said it. I simply took time to show him that I cared. We don’t realize what we carry. We have the most powerful force in the universe inside us. What may seem ordinary to us, no big deal, becomes extraordinary when God breathes on it. It can be life-giving. A simple act of kindness. A simple hug. Words of encouragement. Letting somebody know that you care. That can be the spark that brings them back to life.

In 1995, a young lady gave birth to twin girls. They were born very prematurely. One of the preemies was diagnosed with a severe heart problem and wasn’t expected to live. The hospital’s policy was to keep the babies in separate incubators. Several days passed, and the one baby continued to go downhill and was very close to death. One of the nurses felt strongly that the babies should be put in the same incubator as they had been in their mother’s womb. After much hard work and much persuasion, she convinced the hospital to make an exception to their policy, and the babies were put in the same incubator side by side. Overnight, somehow the healthy baby managed to put her arm around her little sick sister. Much to everyone’s surprise, the little sister’s health started to improve. Her temperature came back to normal. Her heart stabilized. Little by little, day after day, she got better and better. Today, both of those young ladies are perfectly healthy. There is a very touching picture of the little baby with her arm around her sister; it’s called “The Rescuing Hug.”

We don’t always see how powerful we really are. God has put healing in you. Your hugs can cause people to get better. Your kind words can put people back on their feet. The Scripture says, “A gentle tongue brings healing.” A phone call, giving someone a ride, taking them out to dinner, encouraging them in their dreams—there are miracles in you waiting to happen. Some people just need to know that you believe in them. When you tell them, “You’re amazing. You’re going to do great things. I’m praying for you,” it may seem simple to you, but to the other person it can be life-giving. It can help them blossom into all they were created to be.

One time in the Scripture, Moses was on the top of this big hill watching a battle that was taking place. He was holding his rod up in the air. As long as he had his rod up, the Israelites were winning. But the battle went on hour after hour, and he got tired. Every time he put his hands down, the Amalekites would start to win. Finally, Moses couldn’t take it any longer. He was too tired. His brother, Aaron, and a friend named Hur were with Moses on the mountain watching all this take place. They could have prayed, “God, we need a miracle. Keep the Amalekites from defeating us.” Instead, they had this attitude:
We can become the miracle.
They got on each side of Moses, and they held his hands in the air. Because they became the miracle, the Israelites won the victory.

There are people God puts in our path who need us to hold up their hands. They’re not going to win by themselves. They need your encouragement. They need your rescuing hug. They need to know that you care. They’re praying for a miracle. Don’t miss the opportunity. Do as Aaron and Hur did and become the miracle.

I saw a report on the news about a young lady named Meghan who was a junior in high school and a star long-distance runner on the track team. At the state track finals, she had already won first place in the sixteen-hundred-meter race. Next, she was competing in the thirty-two-hundred-meter race. As she came around the final curve, about fifty meters from the finish line, she saw the girl in front of her start to wobble, then her knees begin to buckle. The girl couldn’t run in a straight line and she finally fell to the ground. What happened next made news around the world. Instead of Meghan passing her by, seeing that as an opportunity to beat another runner, Meghan stopped running, went over to the girl, picked her up off the ground, put her arm around her shoulders, and began to carry her toward the finish line.

The people in the stands began to cheer. There wasn’t a dry eye
in the place. When she got to the finish line, Meghan turned so her opponent could cross the line in front of her. Technically, they should have both been disqualified, because you’re not allowed to touch another runner, but the state made an exception and gave them both a finishing time. Meghan said afterward, “Helping her cross that finish line was more satisfying to me than winning the state championship.”