When you think about all of the suffering in the world it can be a bit overwhelming. It is like being asked to swallow the sea.

Every day we are faced with….

The continuation of the war in Iraq with over 3,800 American who have died - and it is estimated over 100,000 Iraqis who have died. And we don’t seem to know how to end this immoral war.

We share this planet with 6 billion of our brothers and sisters. All of us must face the same personal/individual crisis, environmental crisis, and societal crisis.

The U.S. represents only 5% of the world’s population yet we consume 25% of the world’s natural resources.

As Al Gore has pointed out - global warming is a threat to all of us. Global warming is predicted to result in the sea levels rising - flooding many costal areas. Changes in rain patterns have already resulted in flooding in some areas and droughts in others - just to name a few. They say Atlanta will run out of water in three months.

Here in the U.S. the US Dept. of Agriculture reported that 35.1 million people live in households considered to be food insecure. Of those 12. 4 million are children. And the number of people in the worst-off households rose from 10.7 to 10.8 million

Most people are shocked to learn that 30,000 die of starvation in the world every day. That means that every 2.43 seconds another one of our fellow brothers and sisters dies of starvation (85% occur in children under 5 years of age). Yet the great paradox is that there is enough food on this planet to feed everyone.

In Africa alone 1,000 Africans die of AIDS every day - that is 7,000 every a week.

So it is very easy to feel overwhelmed. To feel like how could I possibly make a difference when the numbers of those suffering are so staggering. For this reason many people do nothing - including not even bothering to vote.

It reminds me of a John Mayer song you may be familiar with entitled “Waiting On The World To Change.” The lyrics are:

“Me and all my friends

we’re all misunderstood

they say we stand for nothing and

there’s no way we ever could

now we see everything that’s going wrong

with the world and those who lead it

we just feel like we don’t have the means

to rise above and beat it

so we keep waiting

waiting on the world to change

we keep on waiting

waiting on the world to change

it’s hard to beat the system

when we’re standing at a distance

so we keep waiting

waiting on the world to change

now if we had the power

to bring our neighbors home from war

they would have never missed a Christmas

no more ribbons on their door.”

May of you may feel this way - and it is understandable. But let me tell you a story - I am sure some of you have heard before……

Once there was a wise man who early one morning was walking along the beach. As he walked he noticed the beach was covered with thousands of starfish that had been washed ashore. He came upon a young boy throwing the starfish back in the ocean.

As he got closer he called out, “Good morning! What are you doing?” The young boy paused, looked up and replied, “Throwing starfish in the ocean.”

“I guess I should have asked, why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?”

“The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die.”

“But, young man, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!”

The young man listened politely. Then bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves, and said- “It made a difference to that one.”

The point is one person CAN change the world. We have seen it in our own lifetime. Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Mahatma Ghandi brought the entire English government to its knees and resulted in an independent India. And Martin Luther King through his use of non-violence resistance resulted in civil rights legislation that changed the societal fabric of this country. So, it is possible for one person to affect change.

But it must start with each one of us. Sometimes Buddhism is criticized for being too self-centered - too much emphasis is placed about working on ourselves. But that is where it MUST begin. We must first change our own minds. Everyone wants to change the world, but no one wants to change themselves.

It was Ghandhi who said: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Let me tell you about Nkosi Johnson (February 4, 1989 - June 1, 2001) was a South African child victim of HIV/AIDS, who made a powerful impact on public perceptions of the pandemic and its effects before his death at the age of 12.

Nkosi, was born in a township east of Johannesburg in 1989. He never knew his father. Nkosi was HIV-positive from birth, and was legally adopted by Gail Johnson, a Johannesburg Public Relations practitioner, when his own mother, debilitated by the disease, was no longer able to care for him.

The young Nkosi Johnson first came to public attention in 1997, when a primary school in the Johannesburg suburb of Melville refused to accept him as a pupil because of his HIV-positive status. The incident caused a furor at the highest political level - South Africa’s Constitution forbids discrimination on the grounds of medical status - and the school later reversed its decision.

Nkosi’s birth mother died of HIV/AIDS in the same year that he started school. His own condition steadily worsened over the years, although, with the help of medication and treatment, he was able to lead a fairly active life at school and at home.

Nkosi was the keynote speaker at the 13th International AIDS conference, where he encouraged AIDS victims to be open about the disease and to seek equal treatment. “Care for us and accept us,” he said at the conference. “We are all human beings. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else. Don’t be afraid of us - we are all the same.” Nelson Mandela referred to Nkosi as an “icon” of the struggle for life.”

Nkosi’s mantra became…..

“Do what you can

With what you have

In the time you have

In the place you are….”

Remember, everything we do changes the world. The world is so full of people and things. Beauty and ugliness. Hatred and love. Everytime we change something, no matter how big or small that something changes the world. Every single day the world around us changes. Every day people die and babies are born, this alone changes the world. Don’t ever underestimate the power of your actions. Every day the world presents opportunities for you to help others. Sometimes it is in small ways - maybe a homeless person on the street asking for money. Other times it may be in larger seemingly more important ways.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that EVERYBODY no matter what age or race changes the world simply by living their lives, therefore this means that everybody has the potential to change the world for the better. Its just a matter of deciding; do we want to live our lives to better this broken world that we live in OR do we want to go on living our lives only for ourselves or do we want to make a difference - to make things better?

Its up us to make a difference and its our choice what kind of difference we make. In the coming week - make a difference in some way. I don’t care how - but make a difference.