Women Alive

All sorts of different people make for all sorts of different dreams for success.  In my world of athletics, we all dream of what we would do if we won an Olympic gold medal.  One of my teammates told me that she desperately wanted to be part of a successful Olympic crew, so that she could use her success as a platform to positively influence people. She is passionate about cancer research, and worried that if she didn’t achieve her Olympic dreams, she would reduce her impact on people.  A few weeks later, the two of us were asked to give a one-minute introduction at a fundraiser for athletes. My teammate shared how both her mother and father had battled cancer, and how she wanted to compete in the next Olympics in honour of her mother, who lost that battle. In that 60 seconds of speaking time, people all around the room were in tears.  The woman sitting beside me cried and told me how she had lost her mother to cancer that January, and what an inspiration she found my teammate to be.  Similarly, all around the room, people began opening up to my teammate and telling her their stories about friends and relatives with cancer.  Did my teammate need to win a gold medal to have an impact on these people?  Absolutely not.

How many times in your own life, have you felt that you needed to accomplish some goal or task, or reach a certain status, in order to have an impact in people’s lives?  I know I have often felt this way.  Who would want to listen to me?  What could someone like me have to offer?  The difficulty here is that we look first internally, to the depths of ourselves, to try to help others.  Of course we will come up short.  We would prefer to be in a place where we’ve got it all figured out, and then we can say to others, “Follow my example.  Here’s what I did!”  The irony in all of this is that, who, when confiding in someone, wants to hear how their confidant has it all figured out? If we ever come to a point in our lives where we feel we are ‘good’ enough ourselves to mentor or disciple another, we’re probably not the great mentor we think we are!

Jesus had a long talk with his disciples before he was crucified.  He said, “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 15:5)  This will either tear down our egos a bit, or come as a huge relief.  (Maybe both!)  I am just a branch!  He is the vine!  The knowledge, the power, the peace, the life, the joy… it is all supplied by Him!  When we feel the press of God in our lives to share this abundance with others, that is the fruit that our branch produces.  All we are required to do is abide in His love.

And how do we abide in His love? Jesus’ answer is straightforward: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:10-11)

But what commandment should I keep?  Again!  An answer: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)  How did Jesus love us?  The entire New Testament tells us how.  He told us the truth.  He showed us the Father.  He did this by making disciples first, and telling them.  Then the disciples told the nations living at that time, and then later this message was passed to us through writing.  I couldn’t believe it when I found a prayer for sanctification that Jesus prayed specifically for us, the Christians of the future.  He said, “I do not ask (for sancitification) for these only (meaning the disciples that were with him as he was praying), but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)

Jesus reveals with this prayer that His desire is threefold. First, that those people that will believe through hearing/reading the Word (us!), will be sanctified.  Second, that these believers will be one with Jesus and the Father (as with the vine and the branches.) And thirdly, that through seeing this union, the world will believe that Jesus was the son of God.

The biggest impact we can have on others is to show them more of the Father; to pass on the source of our life to them. In order to do this, we must abide in the Father. When we start becoming concerned with our own credibility, it’s because we are trying to show others a bit more of ourselves!