Brace Yourself

“Brace yourself!”

“You may want to sit down for this.”

“Heads UP!”

“Do you want the good news, or the bad news?“

These are all statements made before something impacts. Whether it’s physical or emotional, we’ve all experienced one form of impact or another. I remember as a kid experiencing physical impacts a lot. Being hit in the face with a baseball while playing “500” in the school yard. Being in the path of a flying corncob on the field trip to Rick Ultz’ farm. Bleeding profusely when as a seven year old I took the sharp edge of a doorknob to my forehead. It was only three or four stitches, but the blood stains told a story of horror. That one left a scar too. Which is often the way with impact.

Emotional impacts can scar. The emptiness of a lost relationship or a death. A real impact leaves an impression. You can trace it’s outline in the place it hit you hardest. Much like I could guide your fingers and cause you to feel the 3 centimeter scar still on my forehead, I could tell you about some of the emotional scars I’ve received and make you feel them with your own heart. Even the things you never went through can be traced and understood if you get close enough to feel them. Impact can have an effect on others as well as ourselves.

At the end of this month I’m planning to host our annual women’s retreat for our Sunday school ladies. I’m planning to talk to them about impact. What’s impacted them, what’s left a mark that changed them for the better and what impacts have left scars that still sting.

I want to offer them hope. I want to talk about making choices. Though some impacts are unavoidable, they are only damaging if we allow them to be. We can choose vulnerability or we can choose protection. We can choose where to put ourselves and see how some positions and relationships mark us as a target, while others hold us safely out of the way.

Most importantly, I want to talk about making an impact. Jesus made a mark on the earth that has changed the world. If we look closely we can still find the well placed footsteps He left to guide us. We can trust the path He took, we can trust the way He left for us and when we walk where He walked, we too will have an impact that can change eternity.

Will you pray with me this month for our retreat? Pray for each woman that attends, that her mind and heart would be ready to receive an impact, and that God would not just be present, but that He would impress us to walk in His righteousness, and enable us to find those footsteps He left for each of us.

“Righteousness shall go before Him and shall make His footsteps a way in which to walk.” Psalm 85:13 AMP