Access!

If you want to change the world, you'll need an access point.

Perhaps not surprisingly, being a mom or dad is the most significant access you'll ever have.  You can shape the heart and mind of this precious little child over the course of all their developing years.  You can show them what strength and courage look like in action, what compassion and forgiveness can do, and what it means to love and serve another.  Even before they're fully verbal, they hear and understand, and the years go by so quickly.  For the rest of their lives, they'll be blessed by everything you did well and by your love for them.

There are seasons of life, of course.
- we learn and grow.
- we raise up our children and help them grow.  and we learn more.
- we release our children into adulthood and applaud as they walk the pathway.
- we touch the lives around us at work, at school, at church, and along the way.  and we grow more.
- we help with grandchildren, same song, second verse.
- There are so, so many opportunities to make a difference, and we learn from every one.

On my short list of favorite fellows, Bishop Samuel

has taught us so much about what it means to serve.

There's a lot of overlap; our own development is continuous.  At 20 or so, we're pretty sure we've arrived.  Then we discover that our education is just begun, our skills are in their infancy, and our productivity is barely out of the ICU.  Then we hit our stride somewhere along the way, and work really hard, and we learn and grow.  And we change the world for the lives we touch.  If we're wise, we'll capture that early and go all in.  The opportunity is now first, not tomorrow so much.

The centerpiece of meaningful life is serving well.  We can do for ourselves and have for ourselves, but that's pretty much pointless.  We can do for others and find the greater joy.  There's more, for sure; infinitely more, but perhaps this is a starting point.

So the question for the morning, how might I serve well today?