Daily Devotions - Friday, October 24

How Can The World Become Better?

“Don’t spend your precious time asking
‘Why isn’t the world a better place?’
It will only be time wasted.
A better question to ask is ‘How can I make it better?’
To that question there is an answer.”
--Leo Buscaglia (The Way of the Bull), p. 125

Traveling to Rwanda this summer gave me an opportunity to observe a most resilient third world country working diligently at recovery following genocide just 14 years ago. As we prepare for our weekend, I’d like to introduce you to Dr. John Toma, one of my traveling mates on this study program.

John works as a forensic psychologist in Phoenix, Arizona. On the third day of our trip, John started what turned out to be a most meaningful witness about how you can make the world a better place. John decided he wanted to learn some words in the native language of Rwandan people. Our tour guides would pronounce the words for different foods (various vegetables, etc.) and John would write them phonetically. He would practice the words and laughter would break forth throughout the bus. Eventually he became quite good with these dozen or so words. On Friday of our visit we went to a local marketplace, a sort of open air flea market with all sorts of vendors. John, accompanied by one of our guides, went to the grocery store and bought two bags of food using his newly acquired language. He then asked our guide to find a needy person and he gave them the groceries. The woman was overwhelmed; John had demonstrated that it is more blessed to give. He told us as we returned to the hotel that he does this in every country he visits as a way of living in solidarity with others throughout the global village.

Leo Buscaglia’s quote is most insightful; John Toma’s witness is one example of a person dedicated to making the world a better place.

Ben Keckler
10.24.08