REFLECTIONS

An Ordinary Day’s Work

Nick’s words stopped me in my tracks. “I’ll always remember what you told me…” Stunned, I scarcely knew what to say. Something I once said to him had seemingly made a profound difference, yet I had no recollection of offering him any life changing wisdom. Little did I know then how words spoken in an ordinary day’s work can impact the lives around us. Someone else’s story helped me understand.

On an ordinary workday a little-known college professor took the podium. Randy Pausch gave lectures for a living. He was an excellent teacher, extraordinary perhaps, but still of little renown except to his students, colleagues, and a few others. For an occasion, known as the “last lecture,” Randy accepted an invitation to participate in the tradition. These programs, common to many schools, offer opportunities to pass along life lessons one would choose to share with others as if it were their last lecture. For Randy, it would be his.

Those few in the audience who knew him were not aware of his terminal illness—not aware that is until Randy chose to reveal it early in his talk. “When there is an elephant in the room, introduce it,” he said referring to his illness. Randy told them he didn’t come to talk about dying. “I came to talk about living.”

“We cannot control the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” “Pursue your dreams. The brick walls you encounter are not there to stop you. They are there for you to show how much you want it.” His lecture continued to list one principle for living after another until he summed it up. “[This lecture] has not been about how to achieve your dreams. It’s about how to lead your life.” That day his message changed many of them.

Few of us give lectures for a living as Randy Pausch did; so most of us will not influence as many lives with a single lecture the way he did. But we deliver at least some small piece of our principles for living every day.

Our lessons come from the words we say, but most emphatically by the deeds we do during an ordinary day’s work. The way we go about our daily work defines our lives that send messages that influence the lives around us. It may surprise you to find how far your messages reach until one day someone stops you in your tracks with words like, “I’ll never forget what you told me.” And you may not remember offering any life changing wisdom at all.

But they will.

You are the light of the world,

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

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