Myths of Impact
Impact chapter:
Which myth do you think you are suffering from and why?
Which myth do you think you are suffering from and why?
posted by Randy | 11:23 AM
What the Heck Blog for 2006 Interns
We'll use this to interact on the book we're reading
5 Comments:
I agree with the overall premise of the chapter on impact: We don't have to be Mother Theresa, or work in occupational ministry - unless, of course, God has called us to do that.
I would like to share something that might give some younger people some perspective: Early in my teaching career, about 10 years ago, I had a student named Ricky, to whom I taught 9th grade Civics. Ricky had some trouble a bit earlier in his life, and had even gotten in trouble with the law.
Ricky was in a very small class that met after lunch, so I had a chance to get to know him on a personal level. (I even was able to talk to him outside class about what sorts of behaviors were and were not appropriate around members of the opposite sex - boy, did he get mad at me about that one!)
I forgot about Ricky within a couple of years, but was reminded of him soon thereafter: he made the national honor roll, and was asked to name one teacher in his 12 years of education who made a significant impact on his life. He named me as that teacher, and I was named to Who's Who Among America's Teachers as a result.
I didn't think that I really done anything that significant in his life, but I suppose I helped him a little at a critical time in his teenage years.
I'm not trying to pat myself on the back. What I am trying to do is make the point that a little bit of kindness and lots of availability can go a long way when someone is in need. We may never know the impacts that we make on other people's lives.
I feel at times that I buy into both myth 1 and 3.
For the Mother Theresa one, I feel like I'm not far enough along in my education (but who ever is, really?). I almost feel ill-equipped at times and that I should know more. Thankfully, God cares more about my willingness to serve than my position, and He will give me the capacity and the capability to learn what I need to know.
I know God has "big plans for my life," but I sometimes forget who's defining 'big.' I hardly feel like I'm making enough impact on people or that I'm doing enough for the Kingdom. But I have to remind myself never to diminish His actions because if God is in it, then it is big.
I think I'm a huge sufferer of #3 - you have to do something big. I think my whole life I've actually struggled with this. If it's not going to be huge and noticeable, then I don't want to do it. Now, I'm not saying that it has to be large and in the spotlight. I just have a hard time doing things that don't seem like a big deal to me.
At the same time, I think whatever you do will be big, for you anyway. I think if you're doing what you're created to do, everything about it will be big. Everything else in life will pale in comparison to it.
I have to realize that it might not be big in the world's standards, but it's still big to God and it will still be big to me.
I have been reading through Hebrews 11 a bit this week while working on a Bible study, and also studying many of the "biggies" of the Old Testament. And what I've been seeing time and time again is that though we view their work as big...I'm not convince they did.
So many of them never partook of the thing they laid their life down for (Moses and the Promised Land), (Abraham and descendents like the sand), et. They had no idea just how big their work was.
Thoughts?
I think that is incredible inside Margaret. I've never thought about it that way. So many people have no idea just how big what they were doing was. Their legacy was something that occured without them. Thanks for that. It really takes the pressure off of having to accomplish something that to me seems huge.
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