In our town of Boise, Idaho, we have a place called The Egyptian Theater. It’s a wonderful old restored theater decorated with pharoahs and gold-gilded Egyptian symbols. It’s kind of awesome. The place seats a bunch of people (1000?).
Around Christmastime they show a bunch of classic holiday films. You sit in the theater with 1000 of your new BFFs, cheer for the hero, and boo when the villain shows up. You all clap and woot-woot when good happens. It really is a terrific experience, one that has become an instant holiday tradition for us.
We saw the Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life. Spoiler alert (am I the only person in the world who hadn’t seen this movie?): George can’t wait to get out of his small town and go see the world, but circumstances and a sense of duty keep him from ever heading out. He gets overwhelmed with stress and, well, has quite a breakdown. Because he was unable to get out and accomplish his dreams, he feels like his life didn’t really matter, didn’t accomplish much.
Fortunately for George, the angel Clarence is able to show him that if he’d never existed, he never would have been able to impact so many lives for so much serious good… even though George felt his life was mundane.
Okay, finally I can get to my point…
Our can-do culture puts so much emphasis on “living your dreams” and “doing big things,” that we tend to poo-poo (weird expression, but I’m using it anyway) a quiet life lived well in the day-to-day responsibilities of life.
You can make a great difference in your corner of the world. Your home, your workplace, your neighborhood, your church, your grocery store, your school, your gas station… You can give away smiles and eye contact and sincerely listen when someone is talking to you. Yay, freebies!
You can plant a lovely flower garden and passersby will feel happy when they see it. Make a meal for a struggling family. Help an elderly person load their groceries in their car. Give the up-front parking space to someone in more of a hurry than you. Send a handwritten note to that person who’s been on your mind. You can laugh with a child and cry with a friend.
Of course, if you have big dreams and can make them happen, great! Do it! Many of us have things on our hearts that we want to accomplish – good things, interesting things, fun things, demanding things, adventurous things, things that will benefit others. Yes and amen!
The danger is if we begin to hold these things up as the ultimate standard of how our lives should play out. If they don’t come to fruition, bitterness can creep in. We feel, like George, that we haven’t done anything “big” and therefore feel like our lives haven’t counted for much, or that we haven’t really “lived.”
Look around you. Look at the ways you already bless so many in your little circle. Or if a big dream has you paralyzed in the now, look around you for ways you can enrich the lives of others… and yours, too, in the process.
You matter, and what you do matters, even if it doesn’t make a big splash. You and George can be world-changers, right in your own day-to-day way.
What about you?
What are some small ways you can make a difference in someone’s life today?
