For Want of a Nail - A Life Impacted

Sometimes I wonder about the true impact that one individual life can make. Of course we can all flash back to It's a Wonderful Life and know that the chain reactions set in place by one solitary person can be unfathomable, but are we really all George Bailey? What difference does our life make?

I read an article recently that said that one thing grateful people do is contemplate mortality. I'm not as grateful as I'd like to be, but this is something I ponder from time to time. What is the true impact my life has made and can make? What will people say about me when I'm gone? What stories will they tell? What have I really accomplished?

In my wonderings, my mind takes me back to a difficult season in my life, and the profound impact a few unknowing individuals made.

There was a time that I've mentioned here before, a time where I struggled with depression and lonliness. Of course this wasn't something I told anyone, nor do I think anyone suspected. I was a dedicated youth group member, although I was barely old enough to be there. I was withdrawn and felt like a loner. I was always there early but made a point to sit in the back and always by myself. After a while I was done. I remember one Wednesday I had decided that after this week I was finished with youth group. I was tired of always feeling alone. I sat down in the back, as I had always done, when someone sat down next to me. I didn't know what to do. He was a youth leader and he had just come over to say hi. He didn't make me move to sit with people I didn't know. He just came over, sat down and talked to me and I could feel a tiny piece of my defenses come down. (I'm sure he won't see this, but thank you, Joey Sugg.) Not too long after he walked away one of the older high school girls approached me and asked me to sit with her (as a sixth grader this was a big deal!), and that was all it took for me to come back the next week where another high school girl invited me to sit with her. Honestly it only happened twice, but that was all I needed. As it happened the two girls were my future youth pastor's sister (Angela Deas Dunnahoe) and his now wife (Destiny Deas). I told him my story one day years later and asked him if he thought they would remember doing that, and I'll never forget what he said.

He said, "Probably not. That's just how they live their lives." 

A lightbulb went off for me. That's exactly how I wanted to live. It's not that remembering these people and events don't matter, but rather that you have made such a lifestyle out of loving people that it comes as second nature. It made so much sense!

I cannot even fathom my life without that youth group. I was on the worship team, lead small groups and Bible studies, preached, did dramas, worked in Children's Church, went on missions trips, volunteered with inner city kids and so much more. My life in high school was almost solely based around my church activities. My faith was formed, molded and solidified during those six years and I know I would not be the person I am today without those years of training and spiritual impartation.

I don't know if you've even heard the rhyme, "For Want of a Nail," until just recently I had not. But only as I wrote this post did I really understand what this rhyme meant.

For Want of a Nail

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost,

For want of a shoe, the horse was lost,

For want of a horse, the rider was lost,

For want of a rider, the message was lost,
For want of a message, the battle was lost,

For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Sometimes it's the tiniest things that make the biggest difference. To think that all someone might need from you is for you to go out of your way to say hi. To think that all someone may need from you is a one-time action of love and inclusion for them to keep their ears open to the voice of God. To think that one nail could have saved a kingdom, and then to realize that you are holding that nail. It just makes you stop and think, doesn't it?

I know that this is a topic I write about often, but it's something I just can't shake. 

People matter.

We will often never know the impact our actions have in the lives of others, but we should do them anyway. It's often the little things in life that aren't so little.

And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.