You might not find the cure for cancer. You might not crack the code on global warming, world hunger, or tainted water. But you can do this. You can make people happy. This mission requires no Ph.D. or M.D. It demands no funding or travel. Age, ethnicity, and gender are not factors. You don’t have to change jobs or change cities or change neighborhoods.
But you can change the world.
You can do this: make a hundred people happy. Intentionally. Purposefully. Practically. You can increase the number of smiles on our planet. You can lower the anger level in your city. You, yes you, can cause a hundred people to sleep better, laugh more, hum instead of grumble, walk instead of stumble. You can lighten the load and brighten the day of one hundred human beings.
You can do that.
What if you did? Suppose you took the “Happy People Challenge.” Make one hundred people happy over a 40-day period. Here is how it works.
- Set out to create “100 extra mile moments” between February 9 and March 20 in which you intentionally seek to make someone happy by doing something more than you would typically do.
- Share your experience in your neighborhood group, class or family, and on social media at #100happypeople.
- Keep a journal in which you list the names of people and ways you tried to brighten their day. Make note of the moment. What did you do? What did you learn? What was the setting?
At the end of forty days, would your world be different?
Would you be different? I think you would be.
Would you join me in the challenge? Happiness-givers are made, not born. The inertia of self-centeredness has a strong pull. That is why the Bible has so much to say about sharing joy. Heaven knows, we need all the help we can get. And God gives it! His word gives practical, applicable ways to make people happy. They are called the “one another” statements. There are 59 of them in the New Testament. It seems to me that they can be condensed into a list of nine statements. Each weekend, at the Oak Hills Church, I will be teaching on the One Another passages in the New Testament. You can join us, in person or online at www.oakhillschurch.com.
You can develop this wonderful skill of sharing joy. You can discover the adventure of making people happy!
© Max Lucado, 2015
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