Things that really matter...

 

 

 

"What on Earth AM I here for???"

One of my friends recently posted something from the book, The Purpose Driven Life. This widely read book was written by Pastor Rick Warren. If you have not read this book, please don't - that is, unless you want to change your life. I have read it two or three times. Every time I read it, I learn something new. This winter, I am going to read it again.

I have talked about this before. As trite as this particular movie was as times, one of my favorite lines from Pearl Harbor came from when the main character (played by Ben Affleck) went to England to help fight off German air attacks. Knowing the extreme danger of the mission, the British Commander asked the American a very simple question and then received a very direct answer. "What is it with you Yanks - are you in a rush to die?". The American replied, "No sir, I just want to matter."

While we are here on this Earth, is that not what we want? To matter? Our days here are so measured. And then they are gone. What have we done? Did we matter? Did we do things that mattered? Did we wake up every morning believing every day day is a gift and we will treat it as so? I have not - I have wasted many a day in my lifetime. Days I cannot recover. Time lost. I can't change those yesterdays, but I can sure try and change my today and tomorrows.

Years ago I did quite a bit of volunteer work at the YMCA. One of the execs and I became good friends. He was one of the finest people I had ever met. One day when I was in his office, I asked him what drove him to work for the YMCA as a career. His reply was very simple, yet very profound. He said, "Every day I come to work, I try to make a change in someone's life. Usually the changes are small, sometimes not so small, and once in a while, huge." What he was telling me, that I did not realize at the time was this - by helping someone every day, he mattered.

Sometimes making a positive change in someone's life can be as simple as edification. Recognizing something about someone, and then telling them. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:29 how important this is. Years ago I was in a team building exercise with some co-workers. One day, we were instructed to all sat in a very large circle. The man conducted the training had each of us, one at a time, tell every person in the circle three things that we they liked or respected about them. It was hard, yet significant at the same time. The result was a team which actually liked each other better. It changed relationships. It allowed people to matter to each other on a transformational basis as well as transactional.

This year my wife and I are going try to step up our game. We want to sharpen our focus on the homeless, the hungry, and the hurting. We know we can't do everything, but we can do something. Each day, every day, we want to make some change, no matter how small, in someone's life. That is a purpose for us that I think will matter.