Does It Really Matter?

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room. Anita Roddick

Do you ever wonder if what you do matters?

When you send words into cyberspace every day, it’s an important question. It’s easy to wonder if those words make any difference, if anyone would care if they didn’t show up.

I’m not thinking about numbers and success and making money. You can measure that stuff easily. But does it really change anything?

I’m thinking that we often don’t recognize the significance of our actions. Maybe the most important things we do pass unnoticed.

I wonder if the most significant stuff happens while we’re busy doing what we think is important stuff. Here’s an example.

An Accidental Connection

I regularly follow Chris Brogan’s blog. Chris writes about social media and business, except that he really writes about how to be authentically human in an increasingly impersonal world.

A while back, he was talking about blogs that impact his thinking and he mentioned Jon Swanson’s blog, 300 words a day. He tossed in, as an aside, that even though he’s not a Christian he always reads Jon’s stuff.

Chris was writing about blogs and the right way to publicize and promote and build a community. The specific comment about 300 words and Christianity wasn’t his point at all.

But his throwaway comment made me curious. I checked out 300 words a day and immediately got hooked. I began reading and commenting, and then was honored when Jon asked me to write a guest post on February 12. Pretty cool connection, right?

Then yesterday I received an email. Jon was working on a post about Jesus’ encounter with a paralyzed man in the first part of John 5. He wanted to know if I could give him some insight on this interaction from the paralyzed man’s perspective.

So we exchanged a couple of messages, and I ended up writing another guest post called do you want to get well? that’ll appear today (3/11/10). You can check out my thoughts if you wish, but that’s not my point.

Look at the impact of a single off-the-cuff remark. Chris Brogan doesn’t know me, but he unintentionally created a meaningful, challenging relationship. He’ll make no money from it, and likely never even know it happened. But he enriched my life, helped me grow as a writer, and challenged me to examine my faith at a deeper level.

I suspect it also happens the other way. I wonder how many times I say or do something that discourages someone else. I’m not even aware of the impact, no opportunity to apologize or explain. I didn’t intend this outcome.

Today I’m thinking that everything we do or say has the potential to matter in ways we can’t predict and may never appreciate. While I’m focused on what I think is important, I need to be aware of what might be truly significant to someone.

Have you ever been encouraged, or discouraged, by the unintentional act of another?