Don't Be A Lightning Bolt




ka-BOOM
A lightning bolt strikes the ground, pile-driving a million particles of plasma and an incredible amount of energy into a small charred patch of undergrowth.  The peal of its thunder shocks the world for many miles around.
As awesome as this pure rush of elemental prowess, a second later it's all over and the dreary landscape is almost exactly the way it's always been.
Life can be like that.
There are moments when we, like the lightning, sit in positions of incredible power and influence.  But many times we don't appreciate the opportunities and soon they've gone by with a flash and a bang.
Only, in life, those opportunities are much easier to overlook precisely because they are not as (no pun intended) flashy.
To be in a position of power means to have a certain amount of say or influence.  This is easy to recognize when you think about the way the opinions of celebrities have a disproportionate influence on the world just because they are in a position where many people are willing to listen to them.

For all of us, though, there are times and places when our reach becomes a little longer:
 
When a trusted friend asks for help with something important to him or her.
When you make a comment in class and suddenly have everyone's attention.
When you write a book or an essay or a blog post and someone else reads it.
When you're chatting with your family at home and a topic comes up that you know something about.
When you're asked to teach a class or lesson or fill some kind of leadership role.
When there's downtime at work and someone brings up a meaningful topic.


In other words, anytime that we have a truly human interaction and an opportunity to provide input, we are in a position of power.
How we respond to those moments of influence has everything to do with the impact we can have on the world.  But sometimes it's necessary to see the value of those moments before we can completely take advantage of them.
Consider what might happen if you were invited to speak to a large audience for a few minutes on a controversial subject.
On one hand, you might feel nervous, put-off, annoyed, self-pitying, arrogant, or anything in between.
On the other, you could choose to see it as a chance to positively influence someone.
If you chose the second route, your speaking engagement is suddenly no longer about you.  And because it's no longer about you, it's also no longer about your nervousness, annoyance, or inflated ego either.  It's all about them.  Their happiness
Without a vision of how what you're talking about will change other people, you're like the lightning bolt that so ineffectively pummels some insignificant piece of prairie:  In a position of power, but without the sense of direction that would enable you to accomplish anything effective.  If you do change someone's way of thinking under this line of action, it may well be on accident.
But that isn't the way that it has to be.


You can be the change you want to see in the world.
You can set their hearts on fire.
You can do anything that you set your mind to.
You are in control of your own motivation, and you can choose to step up to the podium and blow everyone in your audience to a higher plane of existence.
There was a day during a Sunday School class at church when I was a young boy, when we were combined with another class for lack of an instructor.  During the lesson, I answered a doctrinal question of one of my peers.  I was happy that I knew the answer and could explain it well, but I didn't think much more of it than that. 
After the lesson, one of the teachers pulled me aside and told me that he saw great potential in me if I continued on the path I was on.  The way that he said it made it obvious that he really believed it.
The teacher moved out the next week and I never saw him again.  I don't even remember his name.  What I do remember was that a man who didn't know me personally and who very easily could have contented  himself to sitting in the corner and making occasional comments on scriptures instead chose to step inside my life and change it in an indelible way.
You might not think that you can have that kind of influence, but you can.  In fact, precisely because you make the decision to turn an uncomfortable speaking situation (or any other situation of power) into an opportunity for positive influence, you are in a position to help others to see the power they have to lift people up.  If you take advantage of those kinds of opportunities long enough, they will stop being what you say and become the fiber of who you are.


Don't be like a lightning bolt.  Be like a power grid; use the influence that is yours to light the homes and lives of those you come in contact with.  It'll go a bit farther than a clump of burnt sagebrush.











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John Fowler, "Lightning," https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode youniversall, "lightning," https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode skyseeker, "Lightning Strike," https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode Filter Forge, "Electricity," https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

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