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Good morning. Just One Thing – it sounds invitingly simple.

On this day celebrating the much-mourned Dr Michael Mosley, we’ll doubtless be reminded
of lots of his practical, down to earth suggestions for improving health and wellbeing -
cheering one or two we might have attempted, still daunted by the number we’ll leave to
others. I never like fiddling with my diet, and the attraction of a daily cold shower has
always remained strictly theoretical; I have, however, been modestly successful with his
idea of improving balance by cleaning my teeth while standing on one leg.
Not exactly life-changing, I know, but hey, it’s early days.

Just one thing is never meant to end there, of course. It’s intended to lead us to one more,
and then one more, so that on it goes. It’s more a set of steps on a journey than a
destination. And inevitably some will have a direct bearing on the way I relate to other
people.

My Just One Thing might involve a resolve to express my gratitude more often, so I might
find myself saying thank you to the most unlikely people: which might puzzle them, but it
might just make their week because someone has noticed them, acknowledged their worth,
however fleetingly.

Another Just One Thing might be about plucking up courage to say sorry….not constantly apologising for our very existence, but finding the humility and hard words to reach out to someone we know we’ve hurt. What change might that bring?

As the Dalai Lama has put it, ‘If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never
been in bed with a mosquito.’ Just one mosquito, that is.

I confess my unease when the Christian faith is presented in ways which imply that it’s all
straightforward, that it offers answers to every human dilemma, uncomplicated by the
realities of a changing and troubled world…especially when it appears simply to accept the
inequalities and injustices which blight the lives of millions.

Yet I can’t ignore the fact that when challenged on the most important commandment in the
Hebrew tradition, with its thousands of laws, rules, regulations, Jesus chose two: Love the
Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; and love your neighbour as
yourself. God’s requirement for a healthy society, intimately bound together. Everything is
contained there, he said. Just two things. Loving God, loving neighbour, in response to the
divine love for us.

And if the God bit is a problem at the moment…well, maybe concentrating on Just One
Thing might still lead us to some pretty big surprises.

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