Sitting in church on Sunday morning, I was listening to the pastor give the message. He was talking about the impact we all have on the community we live in. That’s nothing new. It’s something we tend to have a conscious understanding of. But the way he described it was what was so striking to me. He made an analogy that each one of us in the congregation is a thread that reaches out and touches a specific part of the city. And, together, each of us individual threads reach out and touch every part of that community.
The broader theme to this message was based on the idea that a lot of people might not even know what we are all about. They may see our church on the corner of such-and-such street and know that we exist, but they don’t know the entirety of what we stand for. Really, the impact you have on a community starts with the first impression they have of you. They might not know the essential tenets of your doctrine, but when they see you flourishing in your daily life—your workplace, your family, your friendships—you are showing them a different way of life that gives you a platform of influence with them. To paraphrase his statement, his claim was that people would say, “I don’t know what those people from that church are all about, but I know that this city is a better place because they’re here.” This is a starting point that allows them to see there is a better way than just mere self-determination. It’s not the total impact you want to make, but it’s a start.
So, what’s at the heart of this idea is that impact isn’t just about what you say, but also what you do. In fact, it usually starts with what you do, because the things you do are an outward representation of what you say you believe. Being kind and generous to people isn’t just a nice motto, but a way of life.
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While I found this message impactful for me, what I found most unforgettable happened in the middle of the message. I had had this loose thread hanging from my shoe for some time. During the middle of the service I decided to reach down and grab that thread and yank it off my shoe. What was so interesting was that right at the point I did that the pastor was making the statement about how each one of us is a thread that runs throughout the fabric of our community, together, touching every part of that community. Besides it being a nice message for everyone to hear, that made it a nice message for me to hear. I guess it really brought it home for me. God wasn’t just speaking to everyone as a group about the threads that they are, but he was speaking, specifically, to me about the thread that I am. Now that thread is a reminder to me. I decided to keep that thread in my Bible so that I never forget the potential I have as a ‘thread in the fabric’.