Covenant Community Services
March 17, 2009
Untold Stories
Your impact and opportunity
Greetings!
This past weekend I enjoyed attending the "Cure for Kids" fundraiser for childhood cancer research. At the event, a young woman shared her story and the story of one of the children she met that died from cancer. It was an emotional yet uplifting story as the speaker communicated the hope for those suffering with childhood cancer and the need to help those suffering. As I listened to her story, there was one constant thread that kept coming through ... it takes a person to make a difference in someone's life!
 
We all need each other. You may not realize it but I need you and you need me. We learn from each other and we grow together. We experience pain or hurt and are comforted by one another. We share insight and are challenged. We hear a story and we are inspired. The ways that we influence one another are endless and mostly left untold. These are the "untold stories" we will only know on the other side of eternity. These are the moments that matter ... the time you took to reach out and share with someone else.
 
I believe we have greater impact than we imagine. Daily, you encounter many people and have an exchange. This exchange is a part of the "untold story" of life. You matter. Moments matter. We must realize that there are "no ordinary moments" in life and that life has no "dress rehearsals". Make your moments count as they will weave their way into the fabric of the "untold stories".

9 "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love.  11 "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. 14 You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. 17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

 

~ John 15:9-17 ~
Allow God to script your "Untold Story"
 
If we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ we cannot escape the clarity and challenges of the message of Jesus ... "love one another". I understand "loving one another" is not always an easy task. There are folks that just are difficult to love and serve but God is not a respecter of men. We are called to love all people. When we love others we are abiding in the love of Jesus.
 
You may ask the question, "How can I show love to others?" The answer is time. You share time with people. You share moments. You listen. You recognize others. You give people respect and dignity. You look for ways to minister the grace and compassion of Jesus Christ. This is how you "love one another".
 
When you give time to others, share a kind word, commit a kind act or even challenge or exhort another person you are becoming a part of their "untold story". An untold story is a part of another's life that begins after your encounter. An untold story is the outcome of "loving one another" through the love of Jesus Christ.
 
In John 21:25, the apostle John speaks of the "untold stories" of Jesus: "25 And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen." You and I are one of the "untold stories" of Jesus. We are the product of His life. In fact, the church you attend is not only built on Jesus but another "untold story" of the apostles.
 
Can you imagine Peter, Paul, and John watching from heaven as the "untold stories" of their life unfolds? It must be amazing. The same is true of you. What are your "untold stories"? Where are you investing time and loving others like Jesus loved you? Once you begin this trek of loving others the "untold stories" will be written throughout the earth. Your influence and impact is only limited by your involvement!
 
Enjoy life and begin writing an "untold story" today. Allow God to script you in unusual and amazing parts and play your role with joy! God writes incredible "untold stories" that bless for eternity.
For King and Kingdom,
 

Randy Martin
661-326-8304