Making a Difference

Last Sunday after worship, I received a "thank you" for speaking the truth - the reality as I saw it - during a church meeting last spring. I was also thanked for asking for a time of prayer before a major decision and then offering that prayer at the same meeting.  For fourteen years I encouraged this in lay leadership training classes.  The one time I modeled it in my own church, I'm thanked months later for my courageousness.  I hadn't planned on going to that church meeting. Earlier in the day, however, I received a call from one of those in lay leadership just to talk through some questions. God nudged for the rest of the day, and so I went.  And now, months later, I'm told that my presence made a difference.

Today, while sitting at lunch with an 85+ year old, I listened as he described a 50-year reunion of co-workers that had taken place last Wednesday.  The group had worked together to create, construct, and deploy a satellite that gathered information from space that is still used in weather prediction models.  As he closed his story, he shared that he was so thankful that he could leave this type of legacy.  A second person came to join us who was about the same age.  After hearing stories from his ministry as a pastor, I asked him as the conversation came to an end, to do one thing for me:  pray that I might make a difference in my new work role.  "That I can do," he said.  

The e-newsletter from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership at Wesley Theological Seminary always ends with a section on asking the right questions. Months ago, there was a story about a church leader that asked one particular question before every major decision.  The question was something like this: Will those who come after us shake their heads and say "What were they thinking?" or will they thank us for our leadership?

My prayer for this day:  that we might all leave a legacy, big or small, that others will thank us for, hopefully before we take our last breaths.