Even the spelling and pronunciation of the word is
filled with power.
The first thing I think of upon reading or hearing
the highlighted word is that of one of those test crashes involving the prototype
automobile and dummy. (A real, flesh and blood person would definitely be a
dummy to volunteer for that kind of mission).
Of course, after the said car slams into the
unbending, unforgiving wall, one has no difficulty determining that it has been
severely impacted. And the dummy, well, he or she isn’t in the best form
either, and are definitely the worse for wear.
There is, after all, that sort of impact which had
the most negative results, perhaps the kind we might read in the newspaper, in
which a father “gets a wild hair” and slaughters his wife, and six children
with an axe. (Lizzie Borden, and Jack the Ripper suddenly come to mind). But of
course, this is the most dark and hideous form of impact.
My entire life is about Impact, but impact of
an entirely different sort.
Over the past 22 years, I have served as a pastoral
counselor in four locations, and have been privileged to minister to thousands of men, and women, and boys
and girls. Concurrent to this, I was afforded the opportunity of teaching hundreds in the context of a
professorship at the local university which I first attended a full four
decades ago. And words and emotions would fail me to humbly exalt in the grace
I was given to mentor dozens of
young, and not so young adults in a self-designed, year-long intern program.
And some of these thousands, and hundreds, and
dozens have gone on to replicate my own impact in such roles as pastors,
missionaries, public school teachers, military chaplains, nurses and social
workers.
One of my former interns, a precious young lady
named Rita Scott, once shared a few poignant phrases with me. And among all the
words ever bestowed upon me, I think her assurance was the most gracious and
memorable of all time, and the import of her words are what I live for.
“Dr. Bill, I don’t want to disappoint you. I’ll go
for you when you no longer can. I’ll speak for you when you are no more. I will
reach the people of my own generation in your name. I will impact those whom
God sets in my pathway, since I can do no less than you have done for me, and
before me. I will do my part to continue that which you have been faithful to
entrust to me.”
For no mentor can wish to hear words any more
bless-ed than these, or which have such an air of legacy, and the continuance
of their own ministry; after they themselves have gone on to their reward.
Not a one of us wishes to have their voice forever
muted simply because the abundance of years has ushered us to the next domain.
All of us who faithfully minister in the name of Him who first set the standard
wish, as He did, to see their own work replicated in those whom we will leave
behind. And everyone who ever named the name of Christ, and who ever grasped
the great work He left for us to do have thrilled to reflect on the possibility
that somehow they might live on in the hands, and feet, and voice of another,
and that strong chain which reaches back through countless generations might
remain unbroken.
As the song alludes, “How blessed. How very blessed
I am!”
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