How Does Your Story End?

Life is punctuated.

.
?
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As I was driving home from my Men's Small Group last night, I was listening to the radio. The station I am listening to these days is a Christian and Inspirational station here in Atlanta. I am not usually out at night and the programming was not what I typically hear during the day. The theme was inspirational stories and songs to lift your spirits and help you see where God is working in your life and where you can be the work in someone else's life.

One of the little snippets that played was a gentleman, who I think is a professional speaker. I didn't get a name but he said something that really stuck with me about "how does your life end" with a period (.), it simply ends with no impact on anyone; with a question mark (?), what did it all mean?; or with an exclamation point (!), meaning your life had an impact.

While we often hear about our mission from God is to pour into others, I have never heard anyone sum it up so succinctly. What if every day, I got up and asked how I could create an exclamation point for someone? What if my actions were driven, not by my own needs but by the needs of others? How would any of that change the way I approached my everyday life?

It is funny how the small things in our lives ultimately link up and tie together, what appear to be random things join into a nice, neat package of clarity. While at our Small Group, we were discussing the ideas of service to our families and how God had given us clear instructions on how we were to love our wives, our children, and how it was our job to serve in our roles as husbands and fathers. Then our group leader asked if any of us had ever thought about what others would say about us at our funerals and specifically what our spouses would say. Would my wife say I had made her life better for having been in it? We all want to assume that is the case but honestly, how many of us can say that we have used our time here and specifically the time with our wives and families to make an impact?

I don't know what this is going to look like but rather than expecting a grand revelation, I am going to think in terms of the small but meaningful things like helping with around the house, being more caring and understanding of others point of view, laughing more (oh how I need to do this at home), and offer a helping hand when I get nothing in return. I believe the process for creating a exclamation point verses a period or question mark is like building a sizable bank account, that it doesn't happen with one event or just over night but during a lifetime of making small but incredibly meaningful deposits in others every day.

Go live your Everyday Faith!