Our hurting world is plagued by challenges that can’t be overcome unless we bring big heart and our best selves to confront the world’s ills. You didn’t ask for that burden and opportunity, but you’re here on the playing field at this moment in history, and that’s how “calling” often emerges in life. Sometimes you get to choose your moments, causes, and vocation.

But, other times, you don’t get to choose the opportunity. The moment chooses you: A troubled colleague or student walks into your office; a loved one takes ill; a refugee family is resettled in the neighborhood; a natural disaster befalls your hometown; or politicians float proposals that would unjustly disadvantage the community’s poor or marginalized. Righting the world’s injustices is a grueling struggle that won’t end in our lifetimes. We need a few million more happy warriors. And the world needs you to be one of them.

- Excerpted from Make Today Matter by Chris Lowney