Are we as individuals really important? Can we, in the large scheme of things, honestly make a difference? Isn’t that what we actually want to accomplish when our life is at an end – to have made a difference, to have our life here on earth count for something, for it to have mattered?

As I share this excerpt from my book with you, I encourage you to earnestly examine what you can do this year to leave that positive lasting legacy. Our life here on earth truly does matter!

ARE WE AS INDIVIDUALS REALLY IMPORTANT? As we continue along with the ever-changing progressions in the melody of this masterpiece work called life, we will all experience the wide diversity of genres and flavors that have been meticulously arranged by the sovereign Composer. As joyful as a carol or as solemn as the blues, with the serenity of a church hymn or the havoc in modern punk, whether the fellowship of a quartet or lonesomeness of a solo, these contrasting bars of notes create the very chords of our lives. Every intricate sequence determines who we are and who we will become, each section dependent on the notes that came before to carry us onward, the riveting brilliance of each individual’s life song producing a magnificent score in the orchestra of humanity.

Life IS painful. Relationships DO hurt. But EVERY ONE of us is a key integral note with a specific part in this masterpiece work that comprises the song of life. Just as George Bailey came to realize in “It’s A Wonderful Life”, a fictional movie with real life/real world relevance, the providence and fate of an entire town was counterbalanced by the life of one single ordinary person. The life and outcome of virtually every individual he interacted with was profoundly affected by his presence on earth. The very people they became in regard to behavior, disposition and temperament were also positively and vastly altered by their relationship with him. Even the lives of people in his town that may not have known him were undeniably improved by his existence. The movie depicts (as is true in real life) that if dozens upon dozens of lives are significantly touched by one single person in a favorable way, a corresponding equal result of detriment and loss could be the impact experienced by the absence of that life. Theoretically, the lives of many more individuals who were associated with the people that he connected with could also be positively or negatively shaken contingent on his contribution to the song of life.

Our lives really are interconnected like notes throughout a magnificent composition. They are like an ongoing, ever-changing song, in part being conducted by the Sovereign Composer with unmatchable eloquence, and in part by the notes themselves as they decide how they will respond and to what measure they will allow their significance to be executed in the ultimate achievement. “There’s more at stake from the ripples we make, than simply passing through.” Regardless of who we are, we will all generate ripples, whether seamless or flawed in the sea of humanity. In this chance of a lifetime and creative work of God, we have the opportunity to build relationships that have LASTING ripples – not only with people in our direct immediate circle, but ripples with enduring implications for multitudes of others down the line in coming generations.