I’ve been thinking this week about the desire inside most people to have a powerful positive impact in this world.
Most people aspire to have that kind of impact and they pursue it. I’ve done that too. Lately I’ve been percolating on that and thinking about what I actually believe.
What I actually believe about powerful impact is this:
“Don’t go looking for impact, rather seek to abide in Christ, and impact will come looking for you.”
What I’ve seen and experienced myself is that there are all kinds of impact. I believe the most potent impact we can have comes from ABIDING IN CHRIST. Take a look at what Jesus says about this:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:4,5 ESV
Imagine a branch of a grapevine still attached to the vine, but bent and partially detached from it, what will happen to that branch? It will soon dry up and not be able to bear fruit, right?
How does that translate to the way we live our lives?
It’s not enough to be just somewhere in proximity to Jesus, partially attached, to have him “somewhere” in your life.
Think about it. He lives INSIDE us. Before he came, that wasn’t a possibility. Now WE are his temples! He came to live inside us so we would have 24-7 real-time access to his thoughts, his words, his feelings – everything about him is right inside us. He wants to be able to share everything with us moment by moment, to give His whole self to us, so we can think like him, talk like him, act like him, BE LIKE HIM.
Yet incredibly, we can live our lives as though that isn’t true.
What’s the key to accessing all that?
ABIDING. Taking time to just be with him, talk with him, listen to him, read what he’s written, converse with him, share thoughts and feelings. Time to just be, to camp out with him, get to know him as the best of friends – think WITH him, not just about Him.
He is a real, interactive presence in our lives. Abiding is the difference between thinking about God and thinking with God.
If we are always racing around trying to make our impact in life without taking the time to commune with him, we are like that branch that’s not vitally connected to the vine. We dry up. We hit the wall. Been there done that!
I remember times in my life that I’ve chosen to do something because I felt it was an opportunity for impact. Sometimes I’ve done that in concert with Jesus, sometimes I’ve rushed in without doing that well and regretted it.
All of it serves to instruct us, successes and failures, so there’s no condemnation for failing at this, we’ve all done it!
I just know that I’ve learned that abiding in Him is far more peaceful, and in the end fruitful, with the kind of fruit I want to bear. I don’t need strive to make a “big splash”, I just need to make the “splash” He wants me to, the kind that comes from abiding in him.
With blessings and prayers,
Terri