Imagine if we could see influence as a golden glow in people’s lives. To wake up and see how you have influenced people for good, and how others had influenced you, would be a humbling thing – filling us with gratefulness and joy.
ILLUSTRATION: Lidiia Moor/www.istockphoto.com
What if we could also see the bruises in people’s lives? All the ways we have hurt and damaged others – all the ways our influence has been bad.
How heart-breaking. How shameful to see how our words and actions have hurt others. How desperate we’d be to fix things, realising that all our sorrow, all our remorse couldn’t undo what was done.
In that world our desperate need for Christ would be obvious. To take the consequences of our sin. To forgive us. To redeem. To heal. To restore.
Paul Clark’s musings can be heard on radio across Australia and at atthetop.org.au.
