At the heart of every human being is a fundamental desire which influences us more than we know. What is it? The answer can be found in something Studs Terkel said. Studs Terkel is an oral historian, now in his nineties, and throughout his lifetime he has talked to tens of thousands of people. Once he was being interviewed and was asked, “What do people want more than anything else?” Without batting an eye, without hesitation, Studs Terkel said, “People want their lives to count for something. They want to make a difference.”

To me this rings true. If you think about your own life, what’s important to you, what you desire, you want to be somebody who counts for something, who, because you were alive, has made some difference on this planet.

Marble Church has a longtime friend named Mike Murray, a management consultant who originally was a Presbyterian minister. He lives in Texas, but travels around quite a lot. One day he called Dr. Florence Pert, our Associate Minister Emeritus. “I am going to be in New York for the weekend. Is there anything I can do to help you at Marble Church?”

So Florence gathered together a number of people involved in the membership procedure at Marble to attend a workshop the following Sunday afternoon after church. Mike gave us a set of questions. “These are the three questions people ask themselves, whether they do it consciously or not, when they want to join a church,” he said and, when you hear the questions, you will see they apply to other aspects of our lives as well.

Here is the first question: “Can I get in?” Can I join? Will I be allowed to become a member?

Second question: “Once I’m in, will be I accepted?” Will people want me, and will they welcome me? Will they be glad that I’m here?

Third question: “Can I make a difference?” Can whatever gifts, whatever talents, I have make a difference in this community?

We all want our lives to count for something. We want to make a difference. When we are young we have all sorts of dreams and plans, and they usually involve having a positive impact on the world, and sometimes being rather important. Then life happens—we grow up and discover how much uncertainty and struggle is involved. How can we make a positive impact on the world when we often have difficulty managing our own lives? We might even have a sense of failure or worthlessness because we are always struggling.

I was helped by reading two books a number of years ago, both by the psychiatrist Dr. Scott Peck. The first book he wrote was The Road Less Traveled. For five years it was number one on the New York Times Bestseller List. The first three words in that book: Life is difficult. Then he wrote a sequel to the book, Further Along the Road Less Traveled. The first three words: Life is complex. I needed to hear those words, hear them in my mind and in my heart. I was trying to stay out of the struggle, avoiding dealing with the issues, thinking they would go away and I could focus on making a difference in the world. Scott Peck changed my thinking: life is supposed to be difficult, and while you are living it you can still have a really positive impact on the world.

I was also helped by a passage from Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Old Testament. God is speaking, as if from a mountaintop. In just two sentences God gives a picture of the whole world and what life is like in it—the anxieties, the struggles, the hardships, the joys, the blessings, the whole gamut of the human experience. This is what God said:

I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses…. Choose life, that you and your descendants may live.

That’s the whole of it, isn’t it? Life and death, blessings and curses. And then God urges, “But choose life, that you and your descendants might live.” I think God was saying to embrace life with all of its problems and uncertainties, giving your life the very best that you can. Take it on. Yes, you will get hurt; yes, there will be bitterness; yes, there will be unhappiness. But choose life. Be positive about it. Don’t see yourself as a victim. Don’t have pity parties every other day because of all the things that have happened to you. Choose life. Give it your best. Let God help you, that you and your descendants might live. And by live, I mean a full and hearty and wholesome life experience.

There are six words Dr. Norman Vincent Peale would use from time to time, saying, “These six words are the most important words in the vocabulary of life.” If they are not the most important, they are pretty close to it. This is what he said: Find the need, and meet it.

A good example of this in the business world is Howard Schultz of Starbucks. What a success!  He asked himself what people are looking for when they stop for a cup of coffee. In Europe, as you may know, there are little cafés where you can sit, reading or chatting, drinking your coffee in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. Howard Schultz did some research, found the need, and met it with Starbucks.

Another example is a man named Bill Casey. In 1907 he was nineteen years old. He and a friend had an idea to meet a need in their community, and they began the first messenger service in the United States, taking milk to somebody who was shut in, delivering prescriptions from the drugstore, and any number of other things. They did this by walking and biking, and their little enterprise grew and grew and grew. A few years later he opened an office in Los Angeles, and then in New York, and then all over the world. That is the story of the United Parcel Service, UPS, started by a teenaged kid who found a need and met it.

Many of you were here the other night when we had a conversation with Lee Woodruff, the wife of Bob Woodruff of ABC News. Fifty-six days after he reached the pinnacle of his career and became the news anchor at ABC, he was on assignment in Iraq and his tank was blown up by an IED. He suffered a severe brain injury. At the beginning they didn’t know if he would live, and if he did live what limitations he would have. Would he be able to walk? Would he be able to talk and see? Would he keep his memory? Would his personality be the same?

By the grace of God, through the skill of extraordinary military surgeons, and guided by a deep personal faith, Bob lived, and they began to put him back together again. Today he is back on air on ABC News.

As a result of his experience he and his wife Lee recognized a need that was not being met. His medical care had been in the best hospitals in the country, if not the world, right near their home. Everything they needed was supplied. But they were aware that is not true for everybody. There are wounded military people in all parts of the country, some in rural areas, some in small towns, and they cannot get the kind of medical support that Bob received. So the Woodruffs created a foundation; they look around the country for little agencies and groups that give care and nurture to the military wounded, and they supply them with money.

Find the need. There are so many needs. Find one—and do what you can to meet it.

There is a need each of us can meet, every day, and I guarantee you that need is all around you. It is something not always understood as important, but there is an enormous need for it, and a little bit can go a long way. It can be life-changing for individuals, and even a community. It is kindness, simple kindness. Being understanding, being gentle with other people.

There’s an old saying: Be kind. Everybody is fighting a tough battle. The great master of literature, Goethe, said, “Kindness is the golden chain which binds society together.”

A few weeks ago a very good friend of mine was diagnosed with an inoperable cancer. He only has a short time to live. I wrote him a letter of encouragement and appreciation for our friendship. This is a man of great intellect, and I always think of him as being involved with great ideas. But when he wrote back he said, “Arthur, thank you for your kindness.” And he added, “Kindness is the most underrated power in life.”

A number of years ago somebody came upon a phrase—no one is sure who originally coined it—and recognized an opportunity. Soon this phrase was everywhere—on posters, bumper stickers, T-shirts, everywhere. It is “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” When you are shoveling your sidewalk, shovel your neighbor’s as well. If you are taking out your garbage, take out the garbage of your neighbor. If you are walking down the street and you see parking meters almost ready to expire, put in a quarter. And when paying your toll at the toll booth, pay for the car behind you.

You know how people will get together and say, “Let’s play a joke on somebody”? Here is a different idea. Get people together and decide to play kindness on somebody, just do something which will overwhelm and touch another person. You might well change a life.

We have a security guard here—and I don’t think it’s the right title for him, because he is so much more than that. His name is Frank Converse, and he is at the West 29th Street door. Frank is a gentleman’s gentleman, a very kind man. The other day he told me that after he had been working here for a couple of weeks, as he was walking home he realized he was smiling. “I had not smiled and felt that kind of joy in a long time,” he told me. “I was thinking, ‘I really love my job because the people there are so good to me.’” I will add that Frank is also unfailingly kind to us and to all who walk through our doors. When you put kindness on top of kindness on top of kindness, there’s an overwhelming feeling of uplift. Everybody is blessed. Find the need for kindness, and be kind.

Jesus spoke often about kindness and gentleness. He knew that the need for kindness, gentleness, sensitivity to others is everywhere around us. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached about these qualities in a Bible passage we call the Beatitudes. I am going to read the Beatitudes to you, because I have a suggestion. As you hear them, take them in; when you go home take your Bible, open it to Matthew 5:1-12, and each day take one Beatitude and spend the day with it. Doing this will bless, uplift and enrich you and make you better able to meet the needs of other people.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God. We are blessed when we acknowledge our spiritual immaturity, our spiritual brokenness, and our need for God.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. When we are sad and grieving, when our lives are not going well, and we acknowledge our sorrow, in time we will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The word meek can seem to be the same as weak, can’t it? But it means gentle, open to the movement of the Spirit, humble before God and other people.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Those who do the right thing, those of integrity and honesty, and those who long to live in a world of righteousness will be rewarded.

Blessed are those who are merciful, for they shall receive mercy. The kindness and understanding you offer to others will come back to you.

Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God. When we grow into a more guileless living, when we clean up our act in our thoughts and our behavior, we move closer to God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. If every one of us sought to make peace with other people, one day there would be peace throughout the world.

Blessed are those who are reviled and persecuted, against whom all kinds of falsehoods are uttered on my account, for their reward will be in heaven. When you are beaten up, reviled, and persecuted, because you have stood for Him, for Jesus, and for the things that you know to be right, even when you are not understood on earth, you will be understood in heaven.

Take a Beatitude a day for the next eight days. Absorb it, and let it be a part of who you are. You will find that just by being yourself you will be meeting other people’s needs.

What we are talking about is making a difference in the world. We can do that when we hear God’s cry, Choose life! 

How do we make a difference? Love life. Give it your best. Embrace and celebrate it. Bring more and more kindness and integrity into your life and you will find that as you meet the world’s need for them you will become fulfilled yourself. Let us pray.

Gracious God, for the blessings of our lives, for the gifts that You give us, and for Your calling to us to choose life, help us to choose life, to love it and give it our best. Help us, Lord, to find the needs in this world for healing and grace and peace, and help us to meet those needs. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.