In professional sports, sometimes a person is referred to as an "impact" player.  This means that the presence of that person's skills has a tremendous effect upon the team.  It can often change them from losers to winners.

In a sense, Jesus is calling all of us to be impact persons.  He wants us to make a difference as Christians in our world.  He equips and encourages us to be people of grace.  The energy of divine love is our contribution to the team.

The exciting truth which confronts us is that each of us can make a difference.  The victorious possibilities of our personalities are limited only by our fears and lack of faith.  The significance of who we are in Christ is enough to positively impact those places and people in life wherein we invest ourselves.  The contribution which, by God's help, we are capable of making has mind-boggling implications for the kingdom of God.

There is no reason for any of us to fret over the fact that we are "under-gifted." God, in His wisdom, has given us gifts suited to His design for us and according to our willingness to be used.  There is no such thing as a loser in the economy of God if "we do the best we can with what we have for Jesus sake today." Nothing is more stimulating to our spiritual ambition than to know that God has no one else just like us.  Each of us is the very best He has in our category.

There is no way to escape our roles as impact Christians.  God is counting on us to turn the franchise around as His church marches triumphantly onward.  In His love, He projects a time when "every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord of all."  But until that time, He is expecting us to help "His kingdom come and His will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

Jesus took a handful of folk getting nowhere with their lives and turned them into a band of disciples.  They became impact players as the New Testament records their penetrating influence on that pagan world.  Our Lord continues to call quite ordinary folk like us to make a difference.  Whether our sphere of influence is small or large, we are equipped to make a redemptive impact upon our social and spiritual environment.  It is God's way of making winners out of losers.