This week I saw a comic strip.  Two people were sitting at a table across from one another.  The first person said to the other:  “What do you do?”  The second person started to tell the first person their very important job title.  Person one then said:  “No.  I mean:  what do you do for the world?”

Great question:  what do you do for the world?

Job titles come and go.  Work responsibilities change.  How we go about making money in order to live most probably will be different today than it will be ten years from now.  What we do for the world is lasting.

The day I read the comic, I received a photo of a young Native American girl wearing a paper mask.  She made it at the Vacation Bible School being led by Presbyterians from Chicago on the Lake Traverse Reservation in South Dakota.  The masks were individual creations signifying that God loves each one of us as the beautiful, unique beings that we are!  What those Presbyterians were doing for the world was giving a little girl (320 little boys and girls, in fact) the sense that she matters and is loved immensely by the most wonderful One.

Though we all miss him terribly, my teenage nephew has taken to spending his summers as a counselor at Boy Scout Camp.  I know he has a ton of fun, but he’s also in service to the campers who attend.  He’s part of the team of leaders who are providing the time and space for campers to become better versions of themselves as they grow in confidence, teamwork, and skill.

I know teachers who don’t just teach to the test, but seek to build character.  Managers who do what they can to lighten the load for employees — not just for productivity sake but because they recognize when a person is going under.  People who commit to visiting seniors weekly — bringing not just meals, but joy to the day of an otherwise isolated person.

I’m not sure we always realize it; but in all these ways, and so many more, we do something so very significant for the world.

What about you?  What do you do

. . . for the world?