The Power of a Single Unifying Principle

BY: FR. MIKE SCHMITZ

Did you know that only 8 percent of people who have set New Year’s resolutions actually accomplish them? In fact, the majority of people give up by January 12! The reason is not that we overestimate our goals or dreams. It’s that we underestimate the impact that our daily choices and small decisions can have. And when we do that, we also underestimate what God can do in our lives. So this month, I want us to ask ourselves where we might be underestimating.

“It Is Too Little . . . ”  A few years ago, I read an article about the Olympic British Cycling Team. This team was awful! For more than 110 years, no cyclist in Great Britain had won the Tour de France. European bike manufacturers wouldn’t let them use their bikes because they were too embarrassed to be associated with them.

But then in 2003, the team hired a new trainer named Dave Brailsford. Everyone had estimated this team as being bad at competitive cycling, but Brailsford refused to underestimate them. He believed they had the potential to be far more than what everyone assumed them to be. So he told them, “Because you have the potential to be more, you need to be more.”

I think God wants to say something similar to us, and I believe he says it in Isaiah chapter 49. Let me give some background. After King Solomon’s reign, the kingdom of Israel split into ten tribes in the North and two tribes in the South. Then the Assyrians came and destroyed the ten northern tribes. But along comes Isaiah to tell the remnants of this northern kingdom that they will restore Israel. Then he goes even further: “It is too little . . . for you to . . . raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). Basically, he tells them that they have underestimated what God can do in them and through them.

This is our story. I believe that many of us have underestimated our role in God’s plan, and because of that, we have underestimated who God needs us to be.

Now, some of you might think, “Wait, I’m already overwhelmed, and now you’re telling me that I’m not even where I need to be?” But we can be so exhausted by trying to be perfect in everything. We feel we have to be a good son or daughter. We have to be a good brother or sister. We have to be a good disciple of Jesus, a good spouse, and a good friend. And we end up feeling as if we’re being pulled in too many directions. But what if we established a single unifying principle that could knit together all those separate threads that seem to be tearing us apart? What if we didn’t underestimate the power of such a single unifying purpose for our lives?

“The Reason Why I Came . . . ”  John the Baptist is an excellent example of someone who lived by a single unifying principle. God had called him to be the greatest prophet of all time, and that’s a lot to live up to! So how did he fulfill his calling and not get torn apart by the demands of that incredible role? Listen to what he says.

“The reason why I came baptizing with water was that [Jesus] might be made known to Israel” (John 1:31). There’s a lot in this one sentence. It’s as if John is saying, “The reason why my parents couldn’t have a child until they were both old, the reason why an angel appeared to my father in the Temple, the reason why I’ve lived in the desert my entire life, the reason why I eat nothing but honey and grasshoppers and dress in camel’s hair, and the reason why I baptize—it’s all so that Jesus might be made known. Everything that has happened in my life is united by this one single principle: that Jesus can be known.”

The same goes for us. You might not know everything that God wants you to do, but if you live according to the single unifying principle of knowing Jesus and making him known, there is no way you can fail to become the kind of person God wants you to be.

John gave his whole life for this. So how did he do it? One moment at a time. One choice at a time. It wasn’t in the big things or the big moments; it was in the small moments. Think about any loving couple you know. They give their whole lives to each other, and they do it one moment at a time. One choice at a time. Think of any person who has ever done something incredible. How did they give their whole life to that passion or that project? They did it one moment at a time. One choice at a time.

“Rebuild My Church.”  Saints aren’t made in big moments. Saints are just people who didn’t underestimate who God needed them to be. They didn’t underestimate the power of a single unifying principle. They refused to underestimate the impact of small decisions. Instead, they just did what was in front of them.

We all know St. Francis of Assisi. When he was about twenty years old, he had a conversion, and then everything in his life was knitted together by the single unifying principle of knowing Jesus and making him known. But he didn’t know what to do.

One day as he was praying in front of a crucifix, the crucifix spoke to him. The image of Jesus on the cross said, “Francis, rebuild my Church, for it is falling into ruin.” The Catholic Church at that time was experiencing a lot of corruption, but St. Francis didn’t go immediately to Rome and say, “I’m here to fix things.” He looked around and saw that the chapel he was praying in was falling apart. So he put one stone on top of another and literally rebuilt the chapel. It was only over time that he realized God was calling him to bring renewal to the whole Church. And he began by doing the small thing right in front of him.

The Power of Small Changes.  Dave Brailsford, the coach for the British cycling team, refused to underestimate the power of small things. When he became the coach in 2003, he had a single unifying principle: to become the best cycling team in the world. He didn’t fire the team and get all new athletes. He just took those mediocre athletes and made them into great athletes. How? By aiming to be 1 percent better every day.

The team started with the obvious things. They adjusted the height and angle of their bicycle seats so that they could get the maximum power output. They started wearing heated shorts to keep their muscles at the proper temperature. They used wind tunnels and experimented with different fabrics. They brought in a doctor to teach them the best way to wash their hands to prevent illness. They experimented with different kinds of pillows for each cyclist to find which pillow maximized the rest he got. They painted the inside of the team van white so that they could spot any dirt that might get into the bicycle gears.

Five years later, they competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and they won 60 percent of the gold medals in cycling. Four years later in London, they set nine new Olympic records and seven world records. Between 2007 and 2017, they won 178 World Championships and 66 Olympic and Paralympic gold medals.

This is the power of small changes.

Don’t Underestimate!  What would a 1 percent change look like in your life? Something simple. For example, athletes set out their clothes before going to bed so that they’re ready to work out when they wake up. If your unifying principle is to know Jesus and make him known, maybe you could make sure you got to bed on time so that you could wake up on time. Maybe you could set out your Bible and your prayer journal at night so that it’s there, ready for you when you wake up. Or maybe every time your watch strikes a new hour, you could pray an Our Father or recite a Scripture verse or reflect on Jesus for ten seconds.

I was in an airport not too long ago, and I wasn’t wearing my clerics. I was working on my computer, and on the back of the computer I had a sticker that said, “Seen, Known, and Loved.” The person sitting next to me saw the sticker and asked me, “What’s that about?” So for the next twenty minutes, I got to talk to him about what I do and the fact that God has a plan for his life.

We cannot underestimate the power of small steps because that’s what made Olympians out of mediocre athletes. It’s what has made saints out of ordinary people. If God has done that with mediocre athletes and ordinary people, imagine what God could make out of you if you refused to underestimate what he could do!

From The Word Among Us

Fr. Mike Schmitz is the Director of Youth and Young Adult Ministries for the Diocese of Duluth. His book, A World Undone, is available at wau.org.