Here’s a question that you may or may not find challenging. Do you believe that God has put us you and me, on Earth for a purpose? And if so, how’s that working out? And then, how does one measure one’s progress towards achieving God’s purpose?

One way is to ask oneself what impact you’re having. What difference are you making, as a man or woman, as a husband or wife, an employer, a co-worker, a parent, or a friend? It’s potentially quite an important question, especially when one starts to recognise that it’s our impact that leads directly to how we’ll be remembered, our legacy. I wonder if you would agree that the fulfilment of our purpose is the best legacy that we could possibly have…

Most of us want to be remembered, or, at least, don’t want to be completely forgotten. We consciously or subconsciously want to leave something behind as a marker of our existence and contribution. Those Christians amongst us also want to end our time here knowing we have done what we were put here to do. Very few of us work and create what we do without any thoughts of the lasting impact of our doing. Somewhere within us all, I suspect, is an awareness of the potential value and influence we create could have on others. We do our best with our kids, for instance, for their sakes, but also in the hope that we will be remembered kindly by them. We work to create wealth to allow them a leg up, our children being our most obvious and probably most important legacy. Innately, we want our ceilings in life to be their floors, after all, who knows what they could achieve with the bit of help we can give them. And, of course, we create a legacy through our good works, our artistic creations and our interactions with other people; legacy, then is what we leave behind.

Let’s return to the initial question of the impact each of us is having. If legacy is important then it’s our impact that will determine it, and even if legacy is the furthest thing from our minds, the impact we’re having on life must surely concern us. Knowing the impact we have had, are having and can have on life can not only change the way we see ourselves but change our approach to the future. Knowing where our greatest impact lies allows us to choose what we want to do about it. It can give us confidence and focus. It’s also likely that God’s chosen purpose for our lives will revolve around the gifting He has given us.

Our challenge to you is to spend some time reflecting on each area of your life and identifying which of these you feel you’ve had the greatest impact in the past. Was it at school, in a relationship, as a sports person, in church, as a preacher or teacher or a carer…and then, why was that? What was there in you that rose to the occasion? Were you simply in your element? Was it the subject, the people or your relationship with them in the moment? We’d suggest that at that moment you hit a sweet spot, a moment of impact, that thing that God has specifically gifted you. Then apply the same process to your life now. Where are you making an impact? Is your impact emotional, intellectual or spiritual? How does it make you feel as a result?

This is where impact and legacy cross over. We can look at the legacy of how our impact on others moves on. How did our past impact change lives, relationships, thoughts even or the way those people’s lives changed as a result? And, knowing the answer, we can redirect the way we do life to create the deepest impact, leave the greatest legacy, fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives at the same time.