Maybe we don't say it that way very often, but it's there. We want to know that the time we've been given meant something. That we made a difference to our families, our friends or our community. That somehow, somewhere, someone is better because we were here.
The interesting thing is how easily we can confuse making a difference with doing something big.
We tend to notice the big things. The accomplishments. The organizations. The people leading the charge. The moments that get recognized. But so much of the impact we have on other people happens in ways that will never receive much attention.
It's checking on someone who's having a hard week. Giving your time when it would be easier not to. Feeding someone who's hungry. Encouraging a kid. Listening when somebody needs to talk. Opening a door for someone because, somewhere along the way, somebody opened one for you.
It's simply choosing to love people well.
Jesus had a lot to say about that.
When asked which commandment mattered most, He answered first with loving God and then immediately connected it to loving your neighbor as yourself. Two thousand years later, it's easy to read those words and miss just how challenging they can be.
Because loving people sounds simple until people are involved.
People can be difficult. We disagree. We disappoint each other. We get busy. Sometimes we're so consumed with what's happening in our own lives that we don't even notice what someone else might be carrying.
Yet Jesus didn't put many qualifications around who deserved our love.
More importantly, He showed us what that love looks like.
He noticed people others overlooked. He spent time with people others avoided. He served when He could have expected to be served. He offered grace to people who didn't deserve it. He washed the feet of His own disciples. Ultimately, He gave His life for people He loved.
That's a very different picture of what it means for a life to matter.
Maybe our impact isn't measured primarily by what we accomplish, how much recognition we receive or how many things we manage to fit into our lives. Maybe part of it is found in the people who cross our path and what we choose to do when they do.
Loving others doesn't always require some grand gesture. More often, it begins with simply paying attention.
Who has God already placed in our lives? Who could use a little encouragement? Who needs someone to listen? Who might be carrying something we know nothing about?
Sometimes the opportunity to love our neighbor is much closer than we think.
And maybe that's worth thinking about as life gets busy again this fall.
There will always be another practice, meeting, deadline, game or place we need to be. But tucked inside all of that activity are people. Our families. Our neighbors. The teacher standing in the classroom. The coach giving up an evening. The person sitting beside us in the stands. The stranger who might simply need someone to notice them.
Those may not feel like life-changing opportunities. But perhaps that's exactly where a meaningful life is built.
Not only in the big things we accomplish, but in the countless small decisions to put someone else before ourselves. To notice. To serve. To encourage. To forgive. To give.
To love our neighbor.
Jesus showed us what that kind of life looks like. And He didn't simply ask us to admire it. He invited us to follow Him in living it.
We may never know the impact of every small act of love we offer along the way. But imagine the kind of families, neighborhoods and communities we could build if we simply got better at loving the people God has already placed around us.