the power of beings

Did you ever have anyone that totally changed your life just by being who they were?

I once worked with a guy who was so sure that he was the best thing his boss had going. He talked it, he walked it, and as far as I know he delivered on it. You would have to conclude that by the way he talked about everything and the way people reacted to him. And the odd thing is, he was convinced that I was the best thing my boss had going for some reason, too. He got me believing it—so much so that I started talking like him, acting like him, and seeing things like him. Pretty soon after that, I got fired. I went across the street and got a job paying twice as much. In two years I doubled that again. So basically just over two years after meeting this guy, I was making four times as much. And a lot of it was because of his influence. I wasn’t any smarter at all. I wasn’t any more educated. I wasn’t a better a worker. I just reckoned myself differently. I made more and made my company profited more. And then I heard that my neighbor across the street had helped one of the big InfoTech consulting firms he worked for close several multi-million dollar deals, but he was still waiting in March to get his $2000 bonus. Still in the same posture, I told him that was ridiculous, that he was worth a lot more than that. He was actually considering moving to Colorado where he could make slightly more money with the same company. He was going to rent his house out and do some other financial wizardry to make it all happen. I talked him out of that and hooked him up with the firm I was working for. They made him a practice manager and paid him zillions (I say that because he moved his family out to Southlake with all the rich people and hardly talked to me again—he obviously made too much to live across the street from me anymore). All this can be traced to the way that first guy just was.

I knew a girl who was so passionately sold out to Jesus Christ. She talked about Jesus all the time as if He were her lover. It was almost indecent the phrases she used. It was like she craved him, she needed him, she was infatuated with him, she wanted his body. She talked about being a martyr, basically so she could touch him and then be with him all the time. And she would write these incredibly powerful poems and journal entries and fantastic stories that described mythically what she was going through, and she’d let me read some of them. When I saw how much she depended on Jesus, and how sold out she was to Him, it made me want that kind of love. I used to get really mad if things didn’t go my way. That, or try harder. After I met her I took up journaling and decided to pour my heart out to God like her, and like David did in the Psalms. I would say that she changed my life forever, but it’s really more like she woke up something in me. Jesus is more real to me today than I could ever imagine. When I say Jesus is my best friend, I mean it. It is not a bumper sticker. We have joined hearts, and He has come through for me like no other ever could or probably ever will. This has made a believer out of me. Not a believer in the sense that I agree with a list of doctrines or tenets about Jesus, but in the friendship sense. Jesus and I are like David and Jonathan—the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Another thing that has happened to me is patience—not patience the virtue, but patience the soul food for my anxious heart. I have been driven again and again to the patience tree, looking for fruit. And I have eaten and been satisfied. Some people who have known me for a long time have remarked that I am more patient and humble and compassionate than I used to be. It’s not because of me. All this can be traced to the way this girl just was.

And I know an eight month old baby who cannot seem to go to sleep without being held firmly against someone’s breast. I just put him to bed tonight with some effort. What a precious gift he is. He’s hard to live with when he’s bawling, but precious just when he falls asleep. It makes me want to find my rest being held tightly by someone much bigger than me, someone as big as God. I know it’s not his maturity or his deep feeling of wholeness and centeredness that makes him want to be held like this. Even at his tender age, he has fears and insecurities that he may carry for life. And I know my girl friend and my guy friend are not perfect. But it is probably their issues that have driven them to the extremes where they have lived. I’m actually thankful for their issues because of their impact on my life. But I’m not sure they would be thankful for their issues. Maybe that’s how it goes. One person is afflicted with something and the way they respond with their life is a testimony to others of a better way to be. Thank God that’s where they were. What an honor and a blessing to be touched by each of these in their own unique way.

Did you ever have anyone that totally changed your life just by being who they were?