Last week, Fred Karger, president of the non-profit organization Californians Against Hate, flew to Utah to announce his campaign aimed at revoking the tax-exempt status of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Meanwhile, the LDS Church has launched its own campaign.

It's called #LIGHTtheWORLD and encourages individuals to do small acts of service each day for the 25 days leading up to Christmas.

If Mr. Karger is sincere about combating "hate," perhaps he should take a page from the everyday Latter-day Saints who are out spreading love this season.

#LIGHTtheWORLD is by no means the LDS Church's first Christmas campaign. However, in addition to encouraging others to spread the story of Christ on social media, this initiative is nudging thousands of Latter-day Saints and friends to make an added effort to live out the Savior's message of love in simple ways every day.

Seemingly small individual lights have started a conflagration of kindness.

A search on social media for "#LIGHTtheWORLD" now results in thousands of examples of how, over the course of just a week and a half, the initiative has brought light and love into the lives of people worldwide, both givers and receivers.

Sure, there are people the church specifically invited to spread the word about the campaign like, for example, David Archuleta, who released a music video, “My Little Prayer,” relating to the Day 7 theme, “Jesus prayed for others and so can you." But there are equally compelling examples of purely organic acts of goodness being offered by ordinary people, every day.

In addition to more familiar seasonal food drives and secret Santa-type service projects, my social media feed is being flooded with uplifting personal posts not connected with any larger service projects. They are the kind of posts that restore hope in humanity and increase faith in God.

One such post came across my feed last week when a friend I worked with five years ago shared an experience about an answered prayer.

My friend wrote: “I had received an almost immediate answer to prayer. It was not a prayer that I needed an answer to. It was not a prayer of desperation. And yet, Heavenly Father answered me. I know that he listens and he hears us."

“I know he responds, even to our petitions that we may not need but only want, perhaps not always immediately, but he always does, because he loves us. Today, as we continue to #LightTHEWorld this month, I hope you’ll pray for the people you know and love in your life, and I will pray for you. We’ll be blessed and better for it.”

Isn’t that what we need more of? We live in a country that is looking for something or someone to trust.

This campaign has reminded me to trust others, myself and, most importantly, to trust God.

This is religion in action. It is for this reason that we need strong churches and communities more than ever. It is also why I believe the #LIGHTtheWORLD initiative will be remembered as the LDS Church's brightest initiative yet.

In retrospect, I suspect we will remember this initiative as having much more substantial reach than what can be tallied in social media statistics and one that shines long after 2016 has flickered out.

We will see that the largest impact is in the hearts of individual people we serve. It may not be enough to light the entire world, but it will have brought light and love.

And where there's both, there can never be complete darkness.