Lollypop Moments

A friend sent me a TED video today by Drew Dudley about “celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.” During the talk, Dudley tells a story about a gal who came up to him and told him that he made an impact in her life. The crazy thing was that Dudley didn’t know this gal nor could he remember handing out the famed lollypop which was the catalyst in changing this gal life.

From this experience, Dudley realized that leadership is not just about changing the world (i.e. big, huge important stuff) but about improving each other’s lives through small actions in everyday life. Accordingly, we all should be celebrating and sharing our lollypop moments with each other and those whose lives have impacted our own.

As I reflected on this video I realized that I had a lollypop moment last month.

I was at the office working away when I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize. Answering it, I found myself talking to an old family friend whom I had not talked to in 17 or so years. He used to teach at a small country church I attended in high school and was good friends with my step-father… but as happens, we all moved away from that small Texas town and lost touch with each other. Recently, however, this gentleman was remembering those days with his son and decided to look up both myself and my parents – hence the phone call.

The crazy lollypop moment happened in the middle of the phone call when he mentioned that his son vividly remembers me and that I had an impact on his son’s life. I was blown away as…well…to be perfectly honest… I didn’t really remember this guy as he was friends with my parents and his son was five years old at the time…

Yet as it turned out, his 5-year old son was watching me, a 17-year old high school student worship God and serving in the church…the son also remembers riding in the car with me as we all car pooled from the church to some unknown location… somehow those simple, everyday acts that I don’t recall made an impact on this child’s life – so much so that he still remembers them 17 years later…

Crazy lollypop moments…

So….yeah… your daily actions DO matter a TON!

[ted id=1355]