Making an Impact: What really matters

This past Sunday we had the privilege of listening to accounts from members of our fellowship who went to Haiti on a missions trip.

Clearly everyone was deeply IMPACTED by their trip, but I really liked what one brother said

If I died tomorrow, would there be a void?  Would I have made an impact on the world?

Children of Haiti

Others talked about the abject poverty of Haiti and how the children of the orphanage they visited did not even have proper bathrooms.  They had to use the bathrooms on the grass outside.

One of the most beautiful things they talked about were how the people there praised God with such high energy even though their instruments were scotch taped together and the people had very little.  

I know most of us in the Western world would think, "Well what are the people praising God for? They live in miserable conditions, the children are suffering, they don't have anything.  They should be asking God for help and not praising him!"

I think the people of Haiti understand what really matters in life.

I've got it all screwed up

I went home from the service feeling some kind of way.  I was extremely inspired, but I was also convicted.

Lately I have been disheartened with some things in my professional life. I have been spending lots of time at work and when I come home I'm thinking about work. I came away from the service realizing that I am pouring entirely too much time and energy into things that don't matter and I also realized that it is just not that serious.

I realized:  "I've got it all screwed up".  

Unlike those of us in the Western world, the people in Haiti praise God not because of what they have or because of what they think they are going to get.  They are praising God because of who He is, they know He is with them, and YES!  even though they don't have many material items they still can make an impact in their country by showing the love and faithfulness of God.  

I remember hearing that after the earthquake several years ago, people were out marching up and down the street giving praise to God.

What's really important: Redefining success

Last year I went through a period of redefining success.  Success to me used to be:

• having a fancy title 
• nice house
• driving a nice car
• trophy husband
• wearing designer clothing
•  kids in private school
•  taking nice vacations.

All of those things are temporal and don't make an impact on anyone's life except your own and they are meaningless.

Success for me at this point in my life is:

• Close relationship with God
• Living out my calling
• Impacting the people around me
• Giving/Receiving Love in my relationships

Lessons from Too Big Too Fail: Don't do it like me

The other weekend I watched Too Big to Fail about the  2008 near collapse of the banking industry.  These people poured their lives into these firms and most of them ended up being fired.  (True they received disgraceful golden parachutes that's another blog post )

 I read an interview with Erin Callan who was the CFO of Bear Stearns and she said "Don't do it like me."  She gave up her life (including her marriage) for that company and ended up getting axed.  

Erin Callan, former CFO of Bear Stearn

At most corporations after you're gone, nobody cares.  They'll replace you with the next flavor of the month, people waste their time politicking with that group, and when the group you've been politicking with is out, so are you.

The point is:  We spend so much TIME worrying about work and all of this when at the end of the day it doesn't matter.  At your funeral nobody is going to say, "Well he came in at 110% of budget in May 2013"  They will talk about how you made people feel and how you made an impact on their lives.

What really matters is making an Impact

I'm in a Mastermind Group for fitness professionals run by Todd Durkin.  His mantra is IMPACT.  I believe this is our number one goal with anything we do in our lives.

Work 

 At work we should be impacting the people around us.  Co-workers, customers, clients, everybody!  Otherwise why are we there?  We have to be there ON PURPOSE.  I truly believe that because I am at my place of employment God will use me to help change someone's life.  Someone's life will be impacted by my PRESENCE because of HIS PRESENCE.

Relationships

In the past few years I've grown tired of superficial and pointless friendships/relationships.  Many times we have relationships with people that have no purpose.  This could be "romantic" relationships or people we hang out with to avoid feeling lonely.  I gave up on these types of relationships in 2012 (well except for that hot guy I was after)  but I realized I would rather be alone than be around people who I didn't enjoy being around and who I didn't want to be like.

So let's be honest: Am I making an Impact?

I don't like funerals in the first place, but it's terrible to go to funerals where NOBODY or maybe one or two people gets up to talk about the impact the person had on the world around them.  

Sitting there you begin to think: What were they doing with their lives?  Why can't anybody get up and say anything about this person fulfilling their purpose and what an impact they had? 

The only thing worse than that are the funerals where the person had a NEGATIVE impact and the preacher or well meaning attendees start making things up about the deceased.  People sitting in the audience begin wonder if they are at the right funeral because nobody knows who they are talking about..

Ask yourself today: Am I making an impact?

I asked myself this question after the missionaries shared their experiences and I realized I am so busy pouring energy into things that don't matter and I am so busy focusing on myself that I am not making as strong of an impact as I could be making.

2013 is in the 4th Quarter and it's time to really reflect on what kind of IMPACT we've made this year. I'm praying that it will be significant, Holy Spirit led, and anointed by God.  That's a winning combination.

REMEMBER IT'S TIME TO GO CRAZY (Crazy people DO make an IMPACT!!!)