I’ve had two interesting interactions with people I’ve met for the first time over the last three days. On Sunday I was preaching at our church in Barnstaple, Devon, and afterwards I was talking to a very sweet lady who came for the first time called Wendy. A woman who had obviously been through a fair bit of life, I was undone as she shared just a little of her heart with Faye and I. As I listened I realised that all my examples, doctrine, memorable phrases and effort was for one thing and one thing only: people. People like Wendy.

Fast forward to yesterday as Tom Lord from Bluegrass IT was at the office getting our PC’s to work (I’ve become PC incompetent after 5 years of Mac). As Tom was making this whole thing work properly for the first time in a year, I was watching him and had the same thought. He isn’t some machine tweaking some other machine to help machines as if we’re living in the Matrix – this whole thing is about people, and it’s helping people. [Disclosure: @Bluegrass_IT  did a sweet job of getting our PC’s in gear. And no, they didn’t offer their help to me in return for PR.] The way Tom was dedicated to helping us, the fact that the computer was a tool to assist our work for people – the setting was an office and a Dell server – the input and the outcome was all about people.

Back in the spring I was sharing a marketing ‘formula’ I’d concocted with @kriscolvin , and what she said to me has been ringing in my ears since: “the thing that’s missing with your formula, Scott, is people.”

Wow. People. I wonder how many:

  • Individuals are living a life that’s missing people
  • Businesses are selling a product and building a brand, but missing helping people
  • Bloggers are writing to impress others, but not empower people
  • Opinionated critics blow hot hair but can’t lend a hand to people
  • Churches are running a ministry but have forgotten about the people
  • People like myself, that consider themselves to be helping people, but haven’t in the last week really got down in the trenches with people.

Perhaps if we stopped what we are doing and asked ourselves, “where are the people?”, then we’d be far more satisfied. I know that for me, meeting, helping and engaging with people is the most refreshing thing I do.

It’s all about people. Isn’t it?