It mattered to that one.

Although we cannot put a number on salvations, we can count to one. One person coming to repent, believe, and follow Christ is what matters. When one person comes from death to life, from darkness to light, from old to new, then all of heaven rejoices. The Angels sing with spender, “It mattered to that one.”

Now and then we want to pretend as if our every action did not create an eternal ripple through time. We act as if this one does not matter this time. Please, listen, it matters.

Every puff-puff-pass that seems to never last, builds and adds to our misunderstanding that this is all we have. This: a short life where we can do no harm. Please, listen, we can do harm.

Each person has a unique significance. All those distant faces are more than unknown places. Just because you have never lived their life, does not mean they to do not have strife. And what does it profit a man if he lives his whole life secluded in a rolling van? Each person matters. Those faces are going to eternal places. Please, listen, eternity is a long time.

We speed-walk past our mundane tasks because those things are lesser than the lofty callings on our lives. Do you really believe that there are coincidences? Do you really think that each interaction with another human being created in the image of God is just a coincidence?

The other night I stopped and spent time with a woman who had no home. She rolled the streets in a wheelchair because her body was brittle and her mind was crippled. Some time after that a man asked if I “had some change to spare.” I just looked at him regretfully and said, “Sorry I don’t carry cash.” The thing I did not understand then, but I know now,  was that the exchange was more than monetary; it was a service that pitted my selfish flesh against the idea that money does not last. I wish I could go back. Please listen, service is the highest commission.

I volunteered at a kid’s camp. It was a place where a child could get away from society’s toxic trash. I did not do anything newsworthy, I just played games, talked and laughed. You see, that was my service to them, the lesser than lofty calling on my life: playing in the sand volleyball pit, creating castles and sharing stories about that 4-year-old’s strife. Did it matter to him? Did it create an eternal ripple in time? My little action? I truly think that interaction was sublime.

God sent His only begotten Son to live the only perfect life, die for our sins, resurrect and thus we can have life. That action mattered then and it matters now. The effect of that perfect service created an eternal ripple in time. And for all those who would call upon the name of the Lord, repent and believe, confessing Jesus as Lord, they may have life and have it abundantly.

Every case of humanity involves a person who has an eternal place. Let go of the worldly lofty race, it only brings with it destruction and pain. Choose life and live. It may sound too simplistic, but the good stuff often is. Fun is a relative and fleeting term. Ask what fun is to the person who never turned away from deception. Ask what fun is to the person who believes in confession. Both people are real. But only to one did the whole Jesus thing appeal.

It mattered to that one.