Search for Significance

Search defined by Websters: to explore or examine in order to discover
Significance defined by Websters: the quality of being significant or having a meaning

As of late I have been wondering about my significance, I ask myself am I making a difference?
How can my significance be measured? Who or what am I finding my significance in? All of these are questions I find myself asking while I am driving alone heading home.

As Many of you may know I am 27 year old male( Man I am getting old). I have worked with teenagers since I was 18, Well actually I was 17 because I became a youth leader the day after I graduated( thanks Pastor Darrel Bucher). What a great time it has been... I have had the opportunity to work with teenagers from all walks of life. I have worked with teenagers who's parents have a lot of money and I have worked with teenagers from the Ghetto's who's parents are not even in their lives. Oh the fun to be able to invest my life in so many.

When I begin to think about the time that I have invested into students, I begin to ask this question to myself... am I really making a difference?

After I ask that question it is usually followed closely behind with How can my significance be measured?, Now this one that is hard to answer is it in how many projects I am involved in or how many things that I have done with the youth group, or how bout how many times i have spoke in different locations... I don't know that I have the answer to this question. Significance is hard to measure that is what I have decided.

The third question that I find myself asking is one that really puts your life into perspective Who or what am I finding my significance in? This is the question that really gets me thinking. So often I look toward the things that i have done rather then what is ahead of me and try to gauge my significance. So many times I look @ those around me and judge myself according to an earthly scale. I often find myself saying....Look @ him/her they are more successful then you.... they have it put together better then you... Wow Look @ them... This is usually when I get frustrated with myself an feel like I am not worth anything....

So like I have told you.... I am in this place where I am searching for significance. What am I here on this earth for. I know that I have a greater purpose. and I know who it can be found in.

In Christ alone will my significance be found, in Christ alone will my significance be measured, and with Christ alone will I make a difference.....

So I leave you with this for 2007 and in 2008 I hope to be found searching for true significance with my perspective CHRIST focused...

Happy New Year,
Jim E

Proud to be an American

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,

I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night.
So that your family can sleep without fright.
It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.

No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers"

My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.

Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.

I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..

Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
"So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."

"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us."

-Author Unkown-

Some one sent me this poem today and thought I'd Share it with you if there is anyone who reads this besides my mom... So I would encourage you if you see a soldier, A Veteran. A Police Officer, Whom ever it may be thank them for what they are willing to do for you and me... Regardless of your political view on the war are soldiers are worth much more then you complaining about the war. Remember you would probably think them if harm was knocking @ your door... Be Blessed. Jim E