Everywhere we go, we leave traces of our actions; yet these traces don’t just exist in the physical world. You have a digital “shadow” that results from your online activity. Everything you do on the internet and social media leaves a shadow of your “real life,” so to speak. But it isn’t just you that has access to this “shadow.” Every connected system has collected information about you: local cameras in your community, banking information, shopping history and habits, even health care and insurance. Recently, Google informed me that I traveled enough miles in 2019 to have circled the earth 2.1 times. When I clicked the link, my report showed all the places I had been. Everyone, it seems, is tracking how we live our lives.

Did you know God designed us to leave evidence of our existence?

If you look at your hands, you will see fingerprints that were formed well before the day you were born. In the history of the world, you are the only person with those exact marks on your hands. Everywhere you go and in everything you do, you are leaving evidence of the life you live. Make no mistake about it: you were created to leave a mark! The question then becomes, “what kind of mark are you making?”

What if we were cognizant of the reality that God wants us to make a difference every day? That God has created each of us “in Christ Jesus,” as our text says, to “do good works” (Ephesians 2:10)? What a remarkable revelation! God saved us and made us to leave a good mark on the earth. There is good that you have been created to do. So what sort of mark will you leave? Make it a point today to smile at a co-worker, share with someone in need, show compassion, or do something good for another. Leave a mark!

Start today with this prayer: God, I know that You are working in my life and that You have created me to do good in this world. Whatever good You have prepared for me today, please make me aware of it. May my life leave a mark in someone else’s life that points them to You! In Jesus’ name, amen.

Wendell Brown is district superintendent of the North Central Ohio District Church of the Nazarene. He is also the founder of Tragedy Into Triumph, a nationwide simulcast reaching hundreds of thousands of people over the last 12 years for the gospel of Christ. He is passionate about discipleship and finding new ways to tell the story of God’s love!

Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.

Written for devotions.