How Can I Make a Difference?

Today Lea, an 11 year old child at Fort Hood, was laughing with other girls from the base as she sat at a table working on her art project: a brown and olive "memory box" where she can finally store the letters she keeps writing to her dad, even though a roadside bomb killed him more than a year ago in Iraq.

Someone said that we are creatures from two worlds; at every moment we have one foot on the present time and one on eternity. One day all the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans, and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived, at the end. It won't matter if you were beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter is not your success, but your significance in the life of others. What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel a lasting loss when you're gone. What will matter is not your memories, but the memories that live in those who loved you. What will matter is how long you will be remembered by whom and for what.

The tragedy in life is that all of us are born God's original, but most die as man's copy.

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident. It's not a matter of circumstance, but choice. Nothing is more fulfilling than doing what God designed you to do.

Vision

God created you with gifts, time and a passion in life for something; your calling is to have a positive impact upon each person you encounter. When you let God take over your life then you will pray to send you to others to have a profound and lasting difference. "Lord, accept me as I am and send me so I can be the instrument of your grace. Expand my heart in order to love more."

Practice

Take a stand today to be God's instrument. Opt to make a difference in others by the way you treat them, by the way you think of them and speak about them. When you take a stand and commit to the Lord it's amazing how the world seems to line up with your commitment and all the right events just seem to happen. Choose to live a life that matters, start by creating opportunities to make a difference to serve and share your passion with Jesus in your heart.

Ok, how do you translate this to real life? Leave your computer and get out, go to your parish and ask your pastor about what you can do to serve. Volunteer in youth ministry, become an usher, reader, greeter during Mass. You can also go to your local Salvation Army, or the local Humane Society. Here are other links: God's Pantry food bank godspantry.org or Homes for Our Troops, helping build homes for our soldiers from Iraq: homesforourtroops.org. Life here on earth is too short. Just do it!

If you never come back to this website but you are able to get out and make a difference in someone else's life at work, school, church or community as a member of Christ's body, we have fulfilled our goal.

Pray, trust and do.