Making waves

“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” - Bruce Lee “Things work out best for those who make the best of how things work out.” - John Wooden

How often the words “making an impact” and “changing the world” have come up in conversations these past few weeks. Conversations about life’s meaning; about what living with purpose entails; about when you know that what you are doing is good enough. The funny thing about these conversations is the fact that “meaning”/”impact” is so often connected to (I want to go as far as say melded with?) numbers – my life can only mean something if it impacts lots and lots of people. So we are only good enough, we are only making an impact, if we are reaching the whole world. If every person with us in this world (well, at least the vast majority) doesn’t know who we are or what we do, we can consider ourselves meaningless. I myself have to admit to suffering from this Oprah/Mother Theresa complex every so often – even though I am told that what I do adds meaning, if the whole world isn’t saying it, it’s as if it never happened.

This has me thinking – when I’m not thinking how useless I am because I haven’t established world peace, of course – about what the value is I see in such a big life? What any of us see in such a big life? Lots of people know you then, yes, and lots of them will probably admire you. You might even be rich and be able to throw resources into all sorts of causes that fix many things. But how does that impact your life? What does it mean when you are on your own? What does it mean to all the many people that know of you when they are alone? Because, in the end, life and meaning is about those times – those times when there is only you. Of course, immediate tension arises in me, for I follow a God whose one desire is to impact hearts. And having such a big life/influence certainly touches people’s hearts.

But in what way? And how permanently? Is my helping reaching and changing their innermost thoughts? Am I strengthening them for the whole of the life they are living? Because isn’t that the change God is talking about? Well, never mind talking about, isn’t that the change God focused on when He walked among us? He was not a celebrity. He had no means. He had no grand schemes. And yet, He changed the world forever. How? By really investing His all into a handful of people and changing their hearts and minds.

It sounds much less exciting, yes. It frustrates every ounce of my (every one of us’) secret celebrity dream. But then, when it is late and I am alone, I am again reminded of the question – Is being well known the same as being known? The same as knowing? And, in the quiet, I know…  

“To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest men and women and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived - this is to have succeeded.” - Bessie Anderson Stanley