Do you watch “America’s Got Talent” or “The Voice”? Who impresses you the most, and why? Was it their voice, overall performance, personal story, appearance, memory, or did they do something unusual?
From this, what did you discover impresses you? First thoughts usually gravitate towards someone with extreme skill, ability, or talent. Someone with an eye for design, a great artist, song writer, performer, musician, or storyteller? Maybe an extreme athlete with phenomenal endurance, great speed, jumping ability, or amazing strength.
Whatever it is, it impresses because it is out of the ordinary; abnormal; unusual. A beautifully decorated wedding, for example, would impress those of us without an eye for such things.
Consider these:
- A gorgeous mansion
- A well-kept yard
- An orchestra with a famous conductor
- A gown worn by a princess
- A couple still married after sixty years
- A patient parent
- A laborer who didn’t miss a day of work for over thirty years
- A restored automobile
This list could go on. What about the following?
*How blue the sky is on a clear day
*The magnificent colors in a sunrise
*How a rainbow knows to shine after the rain disappears
*How a giraffe doesn’t pass out after lifting its head fast
*How a spider can create a web so strong
*How a caterpillar can change into a butterfly
*How the tide knows where to stop
*How every person laughs differently and has a unique fingerprint pattern
*How your heart remembers to beat and breathing is never forgotten
*How volcanic ash turns devastated ground into the lushest green grass imaginable
There are so many parts of creation that are impressive when you stop to think about it. Is there any other type of thing that impresses you?
I learned some people are impressed because I am blind and can:
- pick out matching clothes by myself
- wear a smile and leave my house to join the sighted world
- cook many things (not bake)
- recognize their voice or mannerisms
- dial a phone without looking (if it has a number pad)
- hear a conversation or smell anything far away
- write, or sign, my name without seeing
- count money
- teach Sunday School
- become an author
None of these are impressive to me, though, as I know special tools and learned skills make it possible.
What does impress me then? More important things, like a youngster who Is honest through and through, a person with a servant’s heart, regardless of how tired they are, anyone who takes a stand against a bully, or someone’s generosity,
During the ten years of our feeding ministry, I became impressed with those who . . .
- could sleep without heat, air, a mattress, or under a bridge.
- get a G.E.D. fifteen years after they should’ve graduated
- survive cancer, or put up a good fight and finish well
- fought in combat, witnessing the unimaginable, for me
- work to overcome mental and emotional issues from physical and sexual abuse
As a matter of fact, all of you are AMAZING! Each one of you impress me. Even if you think you’re ordinary, you are extraordinary to someone else . . . especially to the One who created you. He created you with an ability that comes easy to you, impressing those who it doesn’t.
And I repeat – you do impress others!
Too often, we build our identity around what we can do and feel insecure when we cannot impress anyone else, in our mind.
SPOILER ALERT!
This is what impresses me most! That is, next to God’s willingness to send His only Son to earth to live a perfect example, suffer the most unfair, tortuous death for us, and rise again so we can have eternal life.
If you want to know more about how you can let God do more through you, grab your copy of my newest book, Faith Illustrated: taking your next step.
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© 2021, Jena Fellers. All rights reserved.
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