im·pact verb \im-ˈpakt\ – to have a direct effect or impact on.

Does your life have an impact? The things you care about, the things that break your heart, the things you want to see changed…are you doing something about those things? It’s not enough to just care. If your caring doesn’t lead to action, you might as well stop caring altogether.

This past week, Stacey and I got to be a part of a week of summer camp for middle school students. While we were there, we heard about the work that LifeLine Christian Mission is doing in Haiti to provide for the needs of some desperate people there. We gave the students the opportunity to give some money to help meet those needs. But along with that, we also had an experience that I think made a greater impression on our group than anything else we did.

One night during the week, we got the whole group together and packed high-nutrition meals to send to Haiti to help feed people who are starving. That’s impact.

If you consider yourself to be a “religious” or “spiritual” person, let me encourage you to measure your impact. What are you having a direct effect on? What actions are you taking to make a direct contact to change someone’s life for the better?

James 1:27 says that if we want God to be pleased with us, we should “care for orphans and widows in their distress.” Put in general, modern terms, that means that we should identify people around us who have needs that we can help to meet, and then do something about it. What is your impact?