Whose life am I changing?

I'm about to watch a DVD with Dan, and the trailer for the "Blindside" came up.  Sandra's family had taken in a homeless african-american kid into their home.  Supported him through school and eventually he made the college football team.  Amazed at the commitment that Sandra's character has made to this kid, her friends comment that she has changed the boy's life, and her response was "No, he's changing mine!".

That alone, made me think....whose life am I changing?  I printed out my blog today, and was surprised that it turned out to be a 120 page book.  Reading through previous posts, I read comments by friends and families.  Their positive comments about how my blog has had some impact on their lives is encouraging to me.

Whose life am I changing? my own? my family's? my friend's?  Am I really making a change?  

I think it's important to question my motives, my intentions to doing anything in this life? If we don't keep checking ourselves how will we ever be aware of the impact (or lack of) that we have.  It isn't a matter of doubting ourselves and our abilities but understanding fully our purpose.  

Just some random thought to share....Whose life am I changing?  

I know that God has been speaking to me this week about the little things that I need to be faithful about.  I have important things that I need to get on with but I am procrastinating.  As much as I try to multi-task, there is really only a few things that I can do at the one time.  I spread myself so thin, that I end up giving 40% to everything that I do, rather than 100% to a few things, completing those tasks then moving onto the next.

How is it that I am concerned with what I am doing to change someone else' life when I haven't fully accomplished my own.  Now this is a dangerous thought to have, as it is thoughts like these that can prevent us from ever stepping forward to doing things for people.  I don't think we were made to live only for ourselves and for those close to us.  We were made for much greater things.  

In thinking about my life as a Christian I often think about times where I return home to Auckland and being surrounded by my family and friends.  It's interesting that when you return to your roots, your behaviour changes becomes more relaxed.  Though I'm visiting family for a holiday, at times it also feels like a holiday from living as a Christian.  I've found that when we return to a place where we feel comfortable and are surrounded by people who knew our past or understood our journey we tend to slip back into old habits and yet when we fall we are with the very people that we are trying to encourage to live such an amazing life with God...Whose life am I changing?

I was talking with a colleague this morning on the way into work and our conversation lead into talking about "bucket lists".  A list of things to do before you "kick the bucket" ...before you leave this earth.  She talked about all the things that she wanted to do, and one of them being her trip to Greece next week.  Greece is definitely on my bucket list too.  I'm sure everyone has a list of the many places they'd like to see, the life-threatening activities they want to do, and yet these all reflect little pieces of happiness that would last for a moment.  I agree that when these are accomplished, it is a great feeling. But what an even greater feeling it would be to know that you have changed a life other than your own or that of your immediate family.

hmmm....amazing how from a 3 second snippet from a movie trailer has inspired this post....

Each day this week I will be asking myself..."Whose life am I changing?" xx