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Impacting Lives

In his book, A Thinking Man’s Guide to Pro Football, Paul Zimmerman quotes a physicist who had made an incredible discovery. The man had made an incredible discovery. The man had the facts to prove that when a 240-pound lineman (capable of running 100 yards in eleven seconds) collides with a 240-pound running back (capable of covering t the same distance in ten seconds), the resultant kinetic energy is “enough to move 66,000 pounds or thirty-three tons—one inch.”

This helps explain why some players stagger about the field mumbling to themselves after having their bell rung during a collision. The likelihood is that they have been hit on the helmet by a blow approaching 1,000 Gs. That means 1,000 times the force of gravity. Astronauts take off approximately 10 G’s. Pilots tend to black out at about 20 G’s. A recent issue of Sportsweek magazine stated that “tests run on Detroit Lion’s linebacker, Joe Schmidt, reportedly showed that he had to cope with blows which registered at 5,780 Gs.” Small wonder that football, at various levels, kills twenty-eight players a year…or that half the veterans of pro ball will die before age fifty-eight…or that one survey revealed that each year twenty-two college and high school football players become paraplegics. The game has changed from merely a contact to a collision sport. With unbelievable force, athletes chosen for their abnormal size and remarkable speed, stun, cripple, and even kill each other upon impact.

That explains why Joe Namath admits that by the age of fifty he fully expected to have difficulty just putting one foot in front of the other…or why Merlin Olsen, scarcely forty years old, has severe, painful arthritis in both his knees. The human body was never designed by God to handle collisions of that magnitude, no matter how strong or coordinated or big it may be. We simply cannot take the physical impact.

What about spiritual impact? Well, that’s a horse of a different wheelbase. It’s doubtful that any impact, spiritually speaking, could ever be too great. In fact, the bigger the better. Most of us thrive on models that challenge our status quo, tough though they may be. It has always been so. Who named Moses had on Egypt when he stood up against Pharaoh? Or how about Gideon when he successfully led that invasion with blown trumpets and broken pitchers and a stern battle cry? No one can measure the impact Elijah had on Ahab…or Nehemiah had on Tobiah…or Job had on Elihu…or John the Baptizer had on Israel…or Paul had on Agrippa…or Luther had on Rome…or Knox had on Bloody Mary…or all God-appointed evangelists like Whitefield and Edwards and Wesley and Moody and Graham have had on England and America.

And about your life? Who is it the Lord has used to model His message and challenge you to change, to shake off that tendency to settle for less than your full potential, to stretch and pursue and conquer new territory you once never dreamed possible? All of us can name at least one individual, can’t we?

Here are four characteristics usually found in those who impart our lives:
1. CONSITENCY. These folks are not restless flashes in the pan—here today, gone tomorrow. Neither are they given to fads and gimmicks. Those who impact lives stay at the task with reliable regularity. They seem unaffected by the fickle winds of change. They’re consistent.

2. AUHENTICITY. Probe all you wish, try all you like to find hypocritical flaws, and you search in vain. People who impact others are real to the core; no alloy covered over with a brittle layer of chrome, but solid, genuine stuff right down to the nubbies. They’re authentic.

3. UNSELFISHNESS. Musn’t forget this one! Hands down it’s there every time. Those who impact us the most watch out for themselves the least. They notice our needs and reach out to help, honestly concerned about our welfare. Their least-used words are “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine.” They’re unselfish.

4. TIRELESSNESS. With relentless determination they spend themselves. They refuse to quit. Possessing an enormous amount of enthusiasm for their direction? The consistent, authentic, unselfish, tireless individuals who hate those words “lets just get by,” and “it’s too hard, let’s just quit.” Chances are good that, without realizing it, you’ve been reading the profile of that single individual who has impacted your life more than any other person. And it’s not some huge hulk who wore a helmet and shoulder pads, knocking people
senseless. This person might even dislike football and wonder why in the world anybody would enjoy it. Example: Your mother.

Deepening Your Roots
Exodus 1:15-22; Exodus 2:1-10; John 19:25-27

Branching Out
1. Write that person expressing what they have done for you in one of the four areas mentioned above. Be specific. Cite a certain time, place, statement, etc. She’ll treasure this note.

2. Choose someone you could possibly care for or be a model to. Make it your prayer and effort in the next three months to work on this relationship.

3. Sacrifice. That’s usually always part of being unselfish. Make a sacrifice today for someone else—but don’t tell anyone you did so.

4. Adopt someone. Find someone who can’t be with someone today.