Impacting Eternity

-Written by Missy Wainman
Guest Writer and Planting Roots Worship Team Member

I attended a homeschool convention this winter with some friends of mine. This is our 5th year of homeschooling. It is always refreshing to gather with other like-minded moms and have conversations about curriculum, what works and what doesn’t, who had the best session, what books you’re reading to your kids, where to eat dinner, where is the best shopping in the area.

Homeschool conventions are like a drink of cool water for moms like me. They provide much refreshing to continue this chosen journey but they are also a chance to remove ourselves from the daily grind and be with others and laugh and lose the mom title for just a few days.

I am a morning person. So, at the conference I chose to be the first one up and ready to go so that my roommates could have time to get ready for the day. This means I was up at 5:30 and ready by 6. I used the extra time I was given to find a quiet place to read my Bible and reflect and pray.

I found myself in a small receiving area right outside an office door. There were comfortable chairs and a place to put my coffee down. This girl doesn’t need much to be happy.

I settled in, read my scripture, and began to think about what I’d read.

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I don’t ruminate on one subject for long. My mind wanders and I gladly allow it. I am self-diagnosed ADD (I’ve never been formally diagnosed) and I find that the Lord speaks to me most often when I’m not concentrating on one particular thing. This morning was no exception.

On the table next to me was an interesting sculpture.

From my vantage point, it had a dome with metal spikes on the top and a dome with metal spikes on the bottom but nothing through the middle. Since I can’t keep my hands to myself (remember, ADD), I began manipulating the spikes up and down, trying to make the domes look more symmetrical. I turned the sculpture this way and that, changing my point of view, and constantly made minute changes to the spikes.

When I was satisfied with my work, I stood to see how I had changed it.

When I stood up, however, I realized that this new point of view made the sculpture look like one whole sphere of spikes. There wasn’t a gaping hole through the middle. It looked totally different. I discovered that some of the spikes I had moved while sitting down didn’t work in their new place – now they looked out of place.

So I fussed and fiddled with it some more to adjust it to my liking while standing up.

As I shaped the sculpture in front of me, I began to think about the changes I was making…

Would those changes make any difference to anyone else?

Had anyone else ever spent as much time with this art as I had?

Would anyone else care?  

Why did it deserve my attention?

Would anyone even notice?

Would someone else think that it looks more beautiful or more wretched or more worthy of attention because of what I did?

Maybe someone would come along and move everything back the way it had been!

Then I wondered about the changes I was making in my own life and found myself asking some pretty similar questions.

Are the changes I make in my life ones that would impact eternity? 

Am I making those important changes and decisions in my life to affect those in my circle of influence?

How about those outside my circle – does what I do affect them?

I want to be a change maker – one who listens and follows Jesus and obeys because it’s what’s best. I want to be moldable and bendable to His will so that I CAN make a difference in someone’s eternity. But I don’t want to be changed just from one side or another –

I want to be changed ALL THE WAY AROUND because I want to look like Jesus ALL THE WAY AROUND. 

I don’t want people to see one side of me and then see another side with no continuity between the two. I want people to see Jesus. Period. Not Missy. Not the homeschool mom. Not the pianist. Not the girl who strives for things but continually falls on her face.

I want people to see JESUS IN ME. 

How about you, sister? Are you working on things that may or may not have eternal influence? Or are you letting Jesus do His work in you? Don’t get bogged down with whether or not what you’re doing will make a difference. Let Jesus make the difference in you, and He will. He will, sister.

“Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust Him, and He will help you.”  

Psalm 37:5 (NLT)

This song, “Christ In Me,” by Tim Timmons, always speaks to me. What if I believed Christ was really in me? What if I believed in His power? The same great power that brought Jesus back to life lives in us! What if we truly believed and lived out our belief? Glory sisters!

May you be encouraged and blessed today.

Missy Wainman