Sunday, October 2, 2011

Forlorn Realities - Weddings and Friends

Yesterday, I attended one of my close friend's wedding.  Now this wedding was different for me, this one had a bit of a shock that came along with it, even before the actual event itself.  This shock was not at all a bad one, but simply a moment of reflection and a realization of reality.  My friend who was getting married was my small group leader back when I was in Junior High at Hanover Missionary Church Youth Group (HMC Youth for short).  I had grown up with this man as a bit of a mentor throughout my life in different relationships with women, times at school, and a challenging voice in my development  musically in a band.  We had different opportunities as he would drive me home from band practice to have deep conversations and be able to, at times, simply joke around.  I really valued those times, sometimes it was the one thing that I looked froward to on Thursday nights.

Now I have just shared with you my past feelings and thoughts of this person and you may be wondering, "Well, then what is the problem?  What is the reality check?"  For me, I think what was hitting me was that after that time, we didn't have a lot of communication between us since I had gone to school and he had work back at home, yet he still invited me to his wedding.  Here I was going to one of my mentor's wedding and was able to see the blessing from God that we had prayed about different times in his car after band practice.  I got to see and be a part of this special blessing in his life.  I got to see a major transition happen in his life and have promised to be there for him through this major transition.  It was really touching that he was willing to allow me to be a part of that change in his life.  Me, one of his small group boys!

During the reception, I was able to hangout and party with one of my small group boys from back in the day when I was a Junior High Youth Worker at HMC.  Here he was working as the videographer at the wedding and was a close friend of the groom as well.  As I was there having fun with my little bro from small group, it came as a reality shock to me.  I have a similar connection with this young man as I have with the groom.  My small group boy could talk to me about anything and we would try and catch up as much as we could.  We were interested in each other's lives and were willing to be there for each other.  In eight months, we would be in a similar situation as I was in with the groom at the wedding.

It is amazing to realize that we can impact people in so many ways that we may not realize the full impact until we have experienced it ourselves.  All of us have impacted people in such a way that we have people who look up to us, but yet we may just think they are hanging out with us because we are the leaders.  There are some that are following you and will follow you in their hearts because you have done something for them or have impacted them in a way you didn't realize.  Your actions, your words, your leadership, is all an example for others to be guided by.  We are all leaders in action.  We are all grand speakers in someone's life.  We are all a huge impact to someone.

You are an impact in someone's life.