day 311: The Difference One Meeting Can Make

If we were to stop and write down all of the people we meet throughout the course of our work lives, it would probably be in the thousands. Think of all of the people we meet at conferences, business associations, interviews, parties, dinners, co-workers on jobs past, and on and on. We might trade a business card, send an email back and forth, talk on the phone once or twice, and then years later think about them and wonder what ever became of them? Most we don't even remember that long. They are in our lives for a moment and then gone forever. Every now and then I will be walking through an airport and see a face that I know, but with little time and little reciprocated recollection, I just keep walking on. What if we were think about every meeting and every moment as ones that could change the course of our lives or the other persons? Of course this is unrealistic, but is it really? Each and every meeting and moment, we have at least the opportunity to make the best impression and leave behind a calling card of the "type of person" we are. We may never get a chance to speak more deeply than ask how someone is and be a listening ear at a time that someone else is in that need. But, that moment could mean way more to them than us, and that is the point. We are given this example in the baby Jesus story when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Jerusalem. It was there that a man named Simeon laid his eyes on Jesus and, we are told, his life was changed and fulfilled within that instant. Simeon says in Luke Chapter 2:29-31; " 29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!” In that one meeting, Simeon's life was made complete and Mary, Joseph and Jesus never planned it to happen. I doubt that many of us will ever have that kind of impact over someone else, but just in the way that we respond, the way that we listen, the way that we care, the way that we take interest in another person, could be the meeting that they were waiting for and the meeting that could make a true difference in their life. Let us think about the importance of the moments and the meetings we are given as we plan and start our New Year.

Reference: Luke 2:29-31 (New Living Testament)