Making a Difference

When faced with your own mortality, the question arises of whether or not you have made a difference in life.  Not that I have any intention of not making it through this new phase, but the diagnosis itself gives way to introspection. 

As a parent, each choice, each decision, everything done both consciously and subconsciously shapes the future one child at a time.  I had two.

As a youth group leader, I was given the incredible gift of hundreds of teenagers over nearly two decades to love and guide, to laugh with, to challenge and be challenged, to embrace, to point the way.  I have more memories than I could ever write down.  They impacted my life much more than I imagine I ever did theirs.  But maybe, in some small way, God allowed me to make a difference.

As a Type A personality, we want to make a difference in our work as well.  It’s not enough to just do your 8 to 5 and call it a day.  I have had a few opportunities over the years that I will always value.  As a trainer, it was not just teaching guys how to sell cars.  It was a way to teach life skills…communication, understanding people and their needs, learning to listen, demonstrating the work ethic I learned from my dad, working with integrity.   The five-point walk around was just a bonus!  While at the Chamber, I had the distinct privilege of being part of a team that made great strides in that community.   It’s difficult to have had that and then move on.  Perhaps that too was a season.  A part of my journey.

It seems there comes a time in life when we receive more than we give.  It’s so much more fun to give, but I am learning that there is grace in receiving.  As I look back over the years, I am struck by the magnitude of “what if’s.”  But none of us can go back, right any wrongs, hit replay and see if the story turns out differently.  We each have this one moment.  Some of us have had thousands upon thousands of moments.  Some we chose well.  Others we didn’t.  So what do we choose in this moment?  Will we choose to love or to hate?  To forgive or to resent?  To appreciate or to criticize?  To move forward or to live in the past?  To embrace each day or to live in fear?  “For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  2 Timothy 1:7

Some people will make history.  Others will only be remembered by the ones who loved them…and that but for a brief time.  God has given us the opportunity, the responsibility, to show Him and to share Him in our “Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  I didn’t get to be a missionary, but I got to love teenagers who did.  As a parent, I made mistakes.  But there are now three young lives that could change tomorrow.  Jobs come and go, but the impact we have on people remains a part of their fabric. 

Make Me a Blessing

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Out in the highways and byways of life,
many are weary and sad;
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife
making the sorrowing glad.

Make me a blessing,
Make me a blessing,
Out of my life
May Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O savior, I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.

Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love;
Tell of His pow'r to forgive;
Others will trust Him if only you prove
true ev'ry moment you live.

Give as 'twas given to you in your need;
Love as the Master loved you;
Be to the helpless a helper indeed;
Unto your mission be true.

Make me a blessing,
Make me a blessing,
Out of my life
May Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O savior,
I pray Thee, my Savior,
Make me a blessing to someone today.