Being history makers

Smithville Christian High School's spiritual life director Gord Park launched this year's spiritual life theme by inviting students to be history makers.

Park said each one of us has the ability to have an impact, and we don't have to be famous or newsworthy to do it.

Instead, our ability to change the world is based on the power of God through the Holy Spirit in us, he said. Reading from the 1926 poem entitled One Solitary Life, Park said there was nothing about the external details of most of Jesus' life that made him remarkable.

Yet Jesus' greatness was based on the power of God in him, Park said, and that same power is available to each one of us.

Each one of us can change the course of history by saying "hi" to a new student, by stopping to pray with a friend before an exam, or by asking a friend in a difficult situation how things are going, he said.

"Behind every avalanche is a snowflake and behind every landslide is a pebble," Park said. In the same way, the real heroes are the people who pray for the Holy Spirit to shape the ordinary moments of their lives.

"Whenever you let the spirit of God into the ordinary moments of your daily life, you are a history maker," Park said.

He shared the story of his summer encounter with a young musician in El Salvador, and how God used a chance meeting at a high school there to lead to a life-changing moment for both that young guitar player and for Park. 

"Allow God to be real in your life and to live that with the person next to you," Park said. He challenged the students to listen to what God is saying to them and to pray for God to give them the courage to act on it.

"Help us to recognize your voice," Park prayed, "and to share you with others through how we live and honour one another. Through you, we can make all the difference."

The students also watched a video of the song "History Makers" by Delirious. 

 

 Click here to listen.

 

*  *  *

One Solitary Life

by Dr. James Allan, 1926

(Read by Gord Park at chapel)

He was born in an obscure village

The child of a peasant woman
He grew up in another obscure village
Where he worked in a carpenter shop
Until he was thirty

He never wrote a book
He never held an office
He never went to college
He never visited a big city
He never travelled more than two hundred miles
From the place where he was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials but himself

He was only thirty three

His friends ran away
One of them denied him
He was turned over to his enemies
And went through the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross between two thieves
While dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing
The only property he had on earth

When he was dead
He was laid in a borrowed grave
Through the pity of a friend

Nineteen centuries have come and gone
And today Jesus is the central figure of the human race
And the leader of humanity's progress
All the armies that have ever marched
All the navies that have ever sailed
All the parliaments that have ever sat
All the kings that ever reigned put together
Have not affected the life of humans on earth
As powerfully as that one solitary life