It's All About Impact

This past weekend, Mandie and I traveled (south) to Brooklet, Ga for a reunion of a bunch of folks who attended the same church during the late 80's and early 90's. I had a blast as I spent a day and a half with old friends at a beautiful retreat center. We ate, played volleyball, half-rubber, ate, worshipped, and ate some more. The entire thing was a little surreal as I was surrounded, mostly by people I had not seen in 15 years. Fifteen!

Now on the back side of the reunion, there are a couple of things that I carry away from the weekend regarding impact. I thought I would share them with you.

1. The manner in which you deal with people is longer lasting than you can imagine while in the moment. The centerpiece of the reunion was my Dad. He would never say that and would be embarrassed to see it written, but he was the pastor, therefore he gets thrown into the middle of all of the action. For two days, I watched a group of 100+ people fawn all over my Dad. Due to the impact that he had on their lives, these folks showed back up to not only see a bunch of old friends, but to spend some time with my Dad.

It is the time he spent allowing Jesus to be Jesus through him all those years ago that still influences these people today. They can look back to a particular time in their lives and pinpoint a specific moment that Dad had an impact in their lives. This weighty realization has inspired me. If you had asked my Dad during his time in Brooklet, he would never have guessed that his impact would be this great. But that is exactly the point. You and I have absolutely no idea how big an impact we may have in a person's life. If we walk through our day, being obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we will perhaps look back, fifteen years down the road, and be able to see an impact that God made through us.

I'll share the second one tomorrow.