“That sounded really good.”
My dad said this to me as I strolled through the living room on the way to kitchen that afternoon.
Brett Campbell
I was 16 and had been playing around on my recent purchase of a Les Paul copy electric guitar and small amp. I didn’t know much, but I was excited about learning more.
After an hour or so, I put the guitar aside and pushed play on a cassette of “the Red Rocker”
(Sammy Hagar) who tore into a couple of cool solos. I paused it before venturing out of my room at the end of the hall to go get something to drink or snack on.
That’s when Dad made the afore-mentioned comment.
“What were you playing?”
I wasn’t sure if he was asking what album and artist I had going, or if he actually thought I had progressed that much in such a short period of time. I decided to err on the side of rational probability and told him, “I wasn’t playing that. It was Sammy Hagar.”
“Ah,” he replied and gave me a smile that told me he had no delusions otherwise.
Another time, I heard my dad call me when I’d had Stryper’s cover of “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” blasting on my stereo.
“Yes, sir?” I asked, as he looked at me over whatever book he was reading that day.
“What is that?”
“It’s Stryper. ‘Winter Wonderland.’ I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t realize I had it playing that loud.”
I turned to go back down the hallway, saying, “I’ll turn it down.”
“No!” Dad said. “I like it. Turn it up!”
You never know when someone is listening. And what music they’ll like, apparently. But I guess I should have known he could hear it, considering how loud I usually played stuff and the hearing loss I have now.
When I was a junior at Hickory High School, a senior said something to me just before graduation that really got my attention. Although we greeted each other daily in the hallways, I didn’t really know her all that well.
She came up to me and said she wanted to thank me. I asked, “For what?”
“For always having a smile and being positive,” she said. “I know your life isn’t perfect, but you always have a good attitude. That has encouraged me more often than you know.”
Then she hugged me. I was stunned. I had no idea anyone had paid attention to anything I was doing, much less a daily effort to keep a smile on my face.
Don’t get me wrong, my life was not perfect but it was not bad at all. Without knowing labels, I was struggling with depression, anxiety and extreme ADHD. But, I figured I was just an average teenager. I probably was. But I wanted to be happy every day, so when I wasn’t, I just faked it to try to fake myself out mostly.
I’m glad it made a positive difference for someone else. You never know when someone is watching.
Investigative journalist and author Lee Strobel told of the time when he became a Christian after being an atheist who was determined to prove Christianity was false. He went to the office of a friend who had believed the same things Lee did, in order to excitedly lead him to faith in Jesus, too.
After listening to Lee, the man ordered him out of his office, telling him he couldn’t believe Lee had given in to that nonsense. Strobel was disheartened and almost decided not to share his faith anymore, but persisted.
A year or more later, after he’d given a presentation on why faith in Jesus made sense, a man Strobel didn’t know approached him and thanked him, telling him Lee was the reason the man had given his life to Christ. Confused, he asked what the man meant. When could this have been?
“On the day you came to see [your friend], I was on my knees behind another desk laying floor tile,” the man said. He told how he’d listened to everything Lee said and had given his life to Christ on his knees in that office.
Lee was flabbergasted. He had no idea anyone else was listening.
You never know who’s watching, who’s listening and who you’re impacting. But rest assured, you are impacting someone. Is it in the right direction?
