It is 7,110 miles from Mooresboro, North Carolina, to Beijing, China. It is a somewhat shorter yet still lengthy 458 miles from Mooresboro, North Carolina, to Washington, D.C. And while it is highly doubtful that anyone from either of those two important places even knows that the small town in which I live and pastor even exists, we are all interconnected.
I know this, not merely because all three places are on the same relatively modest oblate spheroid of dirt and water called Earth, but also because when I woke up early this morning, the value of my retirement account and other stocks was rising faster than one of Elon Musk’s rockets.
Overnight, word came down that a trade deal had been reached between the United States and China, and/or tariffs mutually reduced. And thus it was that, as the Broad River meandered slowly by my home in the middle of nowhere, I was instantly substantially better off than the day before. Neither President Trump nor President Xi Jinping are aware of my existence, but their decisions affect that existence.
That, by the way, is a concept often recognized and espoused in Scripture. In the context of Christian liberty and how our choices affect others, Romans 14:7 says, “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.” In Joshua 7, Achan found that out the hard way when his hidden sin caused the death of 37 innocent men. Two thousand years after Abraham died, his decisions were still having such a beneficial impact that Galatians 3:9 says, “So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.”
It really is a small world, and technology is making it smaller every day. On a reasonably regular basis, we let our entire congregation talk live with our missionaries half a world away on video calls viewed on the large screens in our sanctuary. Last week, while preaching in Chattanooga, three calls or messages from back home came in, letting us know of people in the church who had dire emergencies. So Wednesday night after service, Dana and I drove home, covering 287 miles in just over four hours, made visits early the next morning in Shelby, Charlotte and Spartanburg, and then drove back to Chattanooga in time for me to preach again the very next night.
With such an interconnected world, every choice we make has the potential to affect more people than we will ever know or realize. With that in mind, then, may I make some suggestions?
One, truly support your local church. Many long years ago, a fatherless little boy got saved and called to preach in a local church that existed and was thriving due to the faithfulness of members present and members long since gone. Now that little boy has been doing wide-reaching evangelism for 30 years, pastoring for 28 and writing this column for 13. You are reading my columns each week partially because of people even I never knew who simply showed up and supported a local church.
Two, mentor someone in your area of expertise. Things do not normally go well for a fatherless boy; they have gone very well for me. For every area of lack, someone picked up the slack. Two karate instructors taught me how to fight — and just as important, that a fight was not always a necessity. When I was just 17, an employer, a successful entrepreneur, taught me about finances, the stock market and investing. Last week, I stood in front of 35 high school students and taught all of them the same things and more.
Three, build or write something that will outlast you. Paul Hutchens wrote the Sugar Creek Gang series, and C.S. Lewis wrote the Chronicles of Narnia. Those men never knew me, but they inspired me to write. Last week, four young fans of my Night Heroes adventure series for kids had their parents drive them nearly an hour to meet me in person, bringing the entire Night Heroes series for me to sign. Who knows what they will one day write for others?
Four, travel, and be a good ambassador for your own country/region. Nothing breaks down walls and builds bridges so well as actually meeting people face-to-face, admiring whatever it is that makes their land and people special and being so polite and well-mannered that they are left with the impression that they must someday visit where you are from as well.
Five, produce and promote honorable behavior. Success may be prized, but honor is priceless and, of the two, will be far more impactful to the world writ large. Keep your word, do right even if no one is there to notice, tell the truth, stand for what is right even if you must stand alone to do so, return your shopping carts, never litter, earn your pay, be on time, sacrifice for others, go above and beyond the call of duty. Whatever is honorable in behavior, be and do that.
Six, pray, pray, pray, and then pray even more. If there is a God on the throne — and there is — nothing will ever be of more impact than that.
Congratulations on the breakthrough, President Trump. For all our sakes, here’s wishing you much success as you negotiate with other nations as well.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and at wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.