What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Aargh! Another hard one. I've been sitting here at my computer trying to answer this one and I am having a hard time. When I think over the year to come, I find it difficult to find something that will matter in 10 years - and that depresses me.

I might alter a few diabetes drugs to give someone better sugar control so that in 10 years they still have both legs and can see. I might put a patient on drugs to lower their blood pressure and cholesterol so they don't have a stroke. I might be the first one on the scene when a patient's heart stops and manage to shock it back into working again. (Actually I just did this last week - five minutes later, after a couple of shocks and some CPR, he was sitting up asking what had just happened!) But will any of this really matter in eternity? Or am I just patching people up to fall apart another day?

Then I got thinking. My workplace, the wards and the clinics, is my mission field. In God's wisdom, he has placed me there as his ambassador, as his representative there. How I go about my day, how I treat my patients and my colleagues, what I talk about at coffee time is my witness to the work that God is doing within me. Already I have had opportunity to share some of my faith with my colleagues and my patients.

It is this witness that will matter in eternity. It is the people who came a step closer to knowing God for themselves that will matter in eternity. This is an awesome opportunity and one that I must keep at the forefront of my mind every day.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ,
God making his appeal through us.
2 Corinthians 5:20a