March 2023 Monthly Letter

Dear Reconcilers, 

This month our guest writer is Dr. Mike Feazell. Mike is a long-time friend and the author of Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God (Zondervan: 2001).

“The Power of Small Things” by J. Michael Feazell

When Curtis asked me to write this for the March ORM newsletter, I asked if he had a topic in mind. He told me that he had recently read something that especially touched him, because it speaks directly to what ORM is trying to do. The quote he shared was this: “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”

As I pondered this statement, I couldn’t help but feel enriched. These are the very things, I think, that make life worth living. I thought of how often these seemingly small acts have made such a difference to me at times when I was crippled by sadness, worry, or discouragement. As I thought about each one, I began to focus especially on listening.

We all know how easy it is to assume we have someone all figured out, especially someone we don’t know or don’t know well. But the truth is that every person has a backstory that we know little or nothing about. Every person has a lifetime of experiences and events, of struggles, fears, challenges and worries, of successes, achievements, and they have people who have loved them, cared about them and depended on them.

It’s really easy, even natural probably, to just look at someone and instantly judge them based on how they look or what they appear to be doing in that one moment.  We all do that, maybe many times a day, don’t we? And we don’t just do it to strangers, but often even to our own family members and friends. But when we jump to conclusions like that, it means we aren’t really seeing them, hearing them, or understanding them at all, at least not in that moment.

Of course, if we turn that around, we all know just how angry, frustrated or hopeless it can make us feel to be misunderstood or misjudged. And that’s just why listening is so important. When we feel listened to, we don’t feel so alone. We feel cared about. We feel like we matter. And that’s good, because every person does matter.

To get back to the quotation that Curtis gave me, it really is the seemingly small things that have the potential to turn a life around, even our own. After all, the one who offers the smile, the kind word, or the listening ear is enriched at least as much as the one who receives it.

J. Michael Feazell