During Sunday’s sermon, I gave everyone a gift, which is also homework. To pass out four “You Make a Difference” gold stickers this week.

But I forgot to bring it full circle – let us know what happened when you gave one out! Send an email to minister@liveoakuu.org and let me know, or post on Facebook and tag me. (Not Facebook friends? Send me a friend request. https://www.facebook.com/joanna.crawford)

If you weren’t here on Sunday — or have already given out your four and would like more — there are extras in the mail room outside my study at the church.

To look at the world with appreciation and a generous spirit, and to let others know that you appreciate what they bring to the world, is right now a counter-cultural act. We are surrounded by messages telling us that we should view our fellow humans with suspicion and guard our belongings tightly, as (the immigrant, the homeless, the person needing help) is coming to take what is ours. “Empire likes it when we fight,” my friend Jake says, and I believe he is correct. If we are busy fighting each other, operating out of anxiety, stinginess, and entitlement, we are prevented from finding common cause and coming together out of shared values to fight together for a better world.

Our religious heritage gives us a different direction. As Universalist Clarence Skinner (1881–1949) wrote:

“We accept the world for the joyous place it was meant to be. We like it, despite the fact that belated theologians look upon it with inherited suspicion … The dominant motive, therefore, is no longer to escape from earthly existence, but to make earthly existence as abundant and happy as it can be made.”

We look for people who make a difference. And when we draw attention to that, when we are generous with our encouragement, there is a ripple effect that may go on further than we’ll ever know.