After returning home from overseas, I find myself really struggling with impact, whether or not I have impact on anyone around me. I feel in my bones that I was meant for great things, that I am meant to change the world, but being at home I feel kind of like a balloon, just floating around on the verge of disappearing into the atmosphere of the mundane.
I know I am not alone in this feeling. I have talked to friends, and they are all struggling with the exact same thing.
God gave us a desire to change the world, but many of us are wondering if our lives make any difference at all. And I am here to tell you that just by showing up, you are making all the difference in the world.
As we say in missions, God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips the called. Let me be an example of that: I am a short, loud, nothing-really-special, 24-year-old girl, and God has used me to make great impact in the world.
And if he has used me, you can bet that he is and will use you.
Because story is powerful and I can only speak out of personal experience, I am going to tell you five stories of how God has used little old me to change the world, without me having any idea what I was doing.
1. He uses absolutely awkward people (like me) to show that he is capable of changing anyone’s life.
Four years ago, when I was in college, I signed up to lead short-term mission trips in Costa Rica for a summer. Being only slightly more mature than the high-schoolers I was leading, one of my tasks was to teach YWAM dramas to the semi-awkward high-school youth. Because I was a very mature 20-year-old, I would always be trying to stifle my laughter in the corner when my pubescent youth would perform these skits in public places. Only to be humbled a few moments later when grown men would come up to us crying, saying that they experienced God in that skit and that they were ready to commit their lives to him.
God will use you, no matter how awkward you may be, to change lives.
