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I wrote earlier about the power of people working together, an important concept. But more often than not, what people accomplish together is the product of one person’s vision. The Jews had been back in country after the Babylonian exile for 90 years, and no one had the vision to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem until Nehemiah.

Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.”  …And they said, “Let us rise up and build.”  (Nehemiah 2.17, 18, ESV)

On our Alaskan cruise, we saw this phenomenon twice in visits to two gardens: Glacier Gardens near Juneau and Butchart Gardens near Victoria, B.C. Both were the product of one person’s vision: Steve Bowhay, a landscape architect in Juneau, had the vision to reclaim land devastated by a major storm and landslide. The now world-famous “Flower Towers” in Glacier Gardens resulted from what they now refer to as “a beautiful accident.” Jennie Butchart, wife of Robert Butchart, owner of Portland Cement, had the vision to plant a garden to beautify a quarry originally used for cement. Both turned ugliness into beauty. 

Don’t underestimate the power of one. God chooses one to mobilize many. Does God want you to join a movement…or start one!

The angel of the Lord appeared to [Gideon] and said to him, “God is with you, O mighty man of valor…Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Do not I send you? (Judges 6.12, 14, ESV)