Friends, Family, Acquaintances, and Impacts

Well I am now official retired from Oklahoma Heart Hospital.  My last paycheck will arrive this week.  Time will fly for me while I get ready for my big transition to Ghana.  Dan Asiamah, the Director of the OAVI school where I will be, is here in the United States.  He will arrive here in Oklahoma this weekend and visit with various people for 10 days before leaving for Virginia.  The remaining time between now and April 16th (my departure date) will be used to see friends, family and decide what items I need to take with me.

Over the past few days, I have been reflecting on the friends and family who I will leave when I move.  During the past few days, a couple of comments have caught my attention which also caused me to reflect on my life and who I am.  Anytime someone moves away, you will hear comments like "Keep in touch" or "I'll never forget you".  These comments indicate that we know how important relationships are to our lives.  Everyone who comes into our life, whether for a short time or long time, will make an impact on the shape of our lives.

Most of us know without a doubt that who we are has been influenced by our parents, teachers
and long-time friendships.  But do we realize that each person we meet for even a moment will help shape us?  I have really been reflecting on some of these brief interactions and how they have impacted the shape of my life.
For instance, when I think about Ghana and my decision to move there to serve, I realize that some of the briefest relationships have made a monumental shaping adjustment to my life.  Then there are others who have been a part of my life for many, many years and the impact they have made on shaping my life has been small.  God sends people into our life each day who impact the shape of our life and who we are.  That impact may be just a nudge to our shape OR it may be a huge re-shaping of who we are.

Relationships are to be cherished.  I have been blessed by many life shaping relationships.  While I know it is hard to stay in touch with the same amount of influence over the years, those relationships will always be a part of who I am.  And for that I am Thankful.  However, the thought I am really wanting to put down to keep is that some of the relationships which have shaped who I am and who you are, are relationships or interactions which only occur over a minute or two.  Some interactions we have are so brief we hardly think about them, but they make good-sized shape-changes to who we are. 

I think about the brief interactions in the Bible which made HUGE impacts/shaping to peoples lives.  For example, Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40), Jesus and the Samaritan Lady at the well (John 4:1-30), the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37).  These, and so many more, are examples of brief encounters which made big shaping impacts on peoples lives.  So two thoughts I want to remind myself of are:

1).  Put your best foot forward in every interaction with others.  You never know how you may impact/shape that persons life.  You would certainly rather be a positive impact than a negative one.

2).  Receive each interaction with others with an open mind and heart.  This person/interaction will impact the shape of your life whether minutely or hugely.