You’ve no doubt heard the expression: “Like a deer in the headlights.” Growing up in North Dakota, I saw that play out numerous times...a deer in the path of an oncoming vehicle, frozen in place rather than doing something about an impending collision. I bring this up because if we’re not intentional, it’s easy for us all to become like a frozen Bambi — unflinching as the world around us collides with evil.

Those of us who are Christ followers know Jesus gave us the vital mission of making disciples...taking the gospel across our street and to the ends of the earth. But the scope of our lost world is overwhelming. There are millions of people who don’t know Jesus; millions who suffer unimaginable pain in their collision with evil; millions who suffer from poverty, sickness, and loneliness. Millions. The size of the problem is overwhelming. And it can leave us standing “like a deer in the headlights.” We think, “There’s no way I can make a difference.”

In Luke 15, Jesus brought the solution into focus. He described how a shepherd leaves 99 sheep in the open country in order to go after just 1 who is lost. He said, “Go after the one lost sheep until that sheep is found.” Imagine if we’d ALL do that!?! We don’t have to be overwhelmed. We don’t have to reach them all. We just have to be faithful to “Reach the One.”

Grace’s annual impact campaign is an invitation to give 1% of what God has poured into your life in order to rescue one young girl enslaved in a brothel in India. Or reach one family suffering from cholera in Haiti. Or equip one orphaned teenager in Russia as they enter the world. Or impact a Muslim village in Malaysia...a college freshman in Ann Arbor...a child in our neighborhood who can’t read. You reach just one. I’ll do the same. Put them together across our church and soon the Impact is huge.

Please pray about giving 1% to Reach the One. God will use it. And lives will change.

Bryan