Think about the parable of the lost sheep. The shepherd leaves 99 sheep to go looking for one.

Every day you can partner with God to do that. Daily you face decisions that can make a huge difference in a person's life. They can fly by you so fast that they feel like they're a part of the blur that is your life, like scenery zipping by on the autobahn. But if you slow down your life and pay attention, you can see a decision point coming at you and choose to respond.

For example, here's a simple 4-point scale for actions you can take to make an increasingly big difference in a person's life:

1 Courtesy - Wave at someone in passing
2 Kindness - Offer to do someone a favor
3 Thoughtfulness - Give someone a gift
4 Care - Write someone an encouraging letter

Do that for someone who is love-starved, who is, as Jesus described them "poor in spirit" and you can hit the ball out of the park. Hold an orphan, pray for a widow, demonstrate to a homeless man that he's not been forgotten, and you can change that person's world.

But caught up in our own busyness and stress, we can fail to recognize the opportunities before us.

Let me share an example that put a lump in my throat. While in Haiti, I blogged the story of Magdala, a 10 year-old orphan. Blog reader Naomi Ferro saw the blog and asked if she could write a letter to Magdala. I said, "sure" and she emailed me a letter.

That's all she had to do. She slowed down her life enough to notice not just a sweet story on my blog, but an opportunity to make a difference. I asked her for her picture and sent it with the letter to my son, who then gave it together with a doll to Magdala. You can see the result in the video below.

Watching the news on TV can leave you feeling powerless, but God has given you all you need to work with to make a difference like Naomi did.