Many years ago, in 1913, a young man about 20 years of age was taking a walking tour in the province of Provence (pronounced "Pro-vahnce") in Southern France. Provence was a very rural area at the time, and rather barren and desolate. The villages were old, run-down, crumbling and in a state of disrepair, and most of the villagers had deserted the countryside.

He stopped one night at the humble cottage of an old shepherd, who, although grey-haired and in his mid-fifties, was still very strong and stalwart. The young man spent the night there enjoying the shepherd's kind hospitality, and ended up staying several days with him. He observed with some curiosity that the shepherd would spend his evening hours sorting nuts by lamplight—acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts, etc. He would very carefully sort out the nuts and lay them down in a row, comparing them and culling out the bad ones that he didn't think were suitable. When he would finally finish the evening's work, he'd put the extra nuts in a knapsack.

The next day as he led his sheep to graze, he would plant these nuts along the way. He would take his shepherd's staff and thrust the end of it firmly into the earth, making a hole several centimeters deep. He would then drop in one of his nuts and cover it over with earth by his foot. Then he would walk several paces more, push his rod into the dry earth and drop in another nut. He spent all his daylight hours walking for kilometers over this entire region of Provence as he grazed his sheep, each day covering a different area, planting acorns, hazelnuts, chestnuts and various other kinds of nuts, all in an area where there were few trees.

Watching this, the young man wondered what in the world this shepherd was trying to do. So he finally asked him, "What are you doing anyway?"

And the shepherd replied, Well, young man, what I'm doing is planting trees."

The young visitor asked, "But why? It will be years and years and years before these trees ever get to where they could do you any good! You might not even live long enough to see them grow!"

The shepherd replied, "Yes, but some day they'll do somebody some good and they'll help to restore this dry land. I may never see it, but perhaps my children will see it."

The young man marvelled at this shepherd's foresight, vision and unselfishness, that he was willing to prepare the land for future generations, even though he might never see the results or reap the benefits himself! He was sowing the seeds from which trees would spring to protect the land for future generations.

Twenty years later, when he was in his forties, the hiker once again visited this same area and was astounded at what he saw! The great valley was completely covered with a beautiful natural forest of all kinds of trees! They were young trees, of course, only seven meters or so tall, but nevertheless trees.

Life had sprung forth all over the valley! The grass had grown much greener, the shrubbery and the wildlife had returned, the soil was moist again, and the farmers were again cultivating their crops. It seemed as if the whole area had sprung to life in comparison to the barren desolate wasteland that it had been when he had visited 20 years previously.

He wondered what had ever happened to the old shepherd, and to his amazement found that he was still alive, now about 75, hale and hearty, and still living in his little cottage, sorting his nuts each evening. Our visitor then learned that a delegation from the French parliament had come down from Paris recently to see this new forest of trees and was so impressed and grateful that they gave the old shepherd a special pension for having reforested this entire area single-handedly!

Now all was thriving just because of one man's foresight, one man's diligence, one man's patience, one man's sacrifice, one man's faithfulness just to do what one man could do, day by day, day in and day out for a number of years.

So if sometimes you're discouraged with the world and the way it is, don't give up! We read that usually governments and armies and wars and great powers, great empires, change history and the face of the Earth. So sometimes we're discouraged and think, "Well, who am I? What can I do? It all seems so hopeless and impossible!. "It looks like there's nothing that one person can do to change things for the better, so what's the use of trying, what's the use of doing anything?"—And we're tempted to just give up and let the world go to hell, which it seems to deserve!

Well, you may not be able to change the whole world, but you can change your part of the world. If you have changed one life you have changed a part of the world, and you have proven that there is hope that it can all be changed! If one life can be changed, it shows that there's a possibility that more lives can be changed and MANY lives can be changed and whole areas can be redeemed and the world can be changed, starting even with one person, just one person—maybe you!

You say we can't change the world? It's too late, too bad, too big, too difficult? Well, why don't you just try changing your part of the world?. Why don't you start with you, your own heart, your own mind, your own spirit, your own life? If you even change your life you've changed a whole universe, the universe of your body, and the sphere in which you live. The place and the very atmosphere around you will be changed if even you change yourself by the power of God's love!

Change not only your own life but those of your own family, of your own home. You'll have a new home, a new family, with new lives, new minds, new hearts, new spirits, filled with the truth and the love of God, the life of God, the Word of God. A whole home has been changed, and that's a whole world, your world! Change the world in which you live, your life, your home, your family, and you've changed the world, your world! Then your little family can start trying to change the neighbors next door and your playmates, business associates, social associates, schoolmates, tradesmen, visitors, the people you contact from day to day just the way we do.

You can go out and make a special effort day or night to reach lonely hungry needy hearts in the places where they gather for recreation, solace, comfort and entertainment, seeking love, seeking truth, seeking something they know not what, but seeking happiness, desperately seeking to satisfy their longing yearning hearts that are so empty and so barren and so desolate for lack of the water of the Word, for lack of the warm love of God.

You can't change the world?—Oh, yes you can!—And we're changing it! You are changing it if you're doing what we're doing and have been doing for only a few short years. We are changing the world! Praise God!

Change the world you're living in! Start now! Be a faithful witness and a testimony to what has happened to you where you are, what God has done for you, what His love and His truth have done for you personally, and you can start changing your part of the world!

—David Brandt Berg