Steve Pemberton - The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World

The people who matter most in our lives are like lighthouses: we can count on them to stay sturdy through a storm and shine a path to guide us through darkness. Steve Pemberton shows us how to find themand how to become them.

ADAM GRANT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife

If you have ever doubted whether your work impacts the world, The Lighthouse Effect is for you.

MILDRED JOYNER, president of National Association of Social Workers

Steve Pemberton has done it again. The stories shared in The Lighthouse Effect left an indelible mark on my heart. The visualization of the moments in the lives of these extraordinary people awakened in me the power of human connection and the realization that a lifeline of caring can provide a beacon of hope.

ROSE BOWMAN, principal of Old Hammondtown School and Steve Pembertons second grade teacher

The Lighthouse Effect is perhaps most of all an exercise in daily gratitude for the power of small momentsand the people that make them happen.

ERIC MOSLEY, CEO of Workhuman and coauthor of Making Work Human

ZONDERVAN BOOKS

The Lighthouse Effect

Copyright 2021 by Stephen J. Pemberton

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Epub Edition July 2021 9780310362333

ISBN 978-0-310-36234-0 (audio)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Pemberton, Steve, 1967 June 15- author.

Title: The lighthouse effect : how ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact in the world / Steve Pemberton.

Description: Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: Our culture is adrift in division and distrust, and we need everyday heroes more than ever. Drawing from his own remarkable journey, Steve Pemberton shares stories of the ordinary people who quietly change lives and bring change to their communities. Compelling and insightful, this book will inspire you and renew your hope for the futureProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021008830 (print) | LCCN 2021008831 (ebook) | ISBN 9780310362326 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780310362333 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Conduct of life. | Virtues. | Mentoring.

Classification: LCC BJ1547.4 .P46 2021 (print) | LCC BJ1547.4 (ebook) | DDC 158.1dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008830

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008831

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover image: John Lund / Getty Images

Interior design: Sara Colley

Printed in the United States of America

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To John Sykes

For the light you were and the light you remain

CONTENTS

I have found it is the small things. Everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keeps the darkness at bay. Simple acts of kindness and love.

GANDALF THE GREY, THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY

I did not have high expectations for my first book, A Chance in the World. The truth is that none were necessary. Its purpose, I believed at the time, was to serve as a family history that future generations would pull down from a dusty shelf and read one day, should they ever be so inclined.

Soon it became apparent, from those who sought me out, that in the course of sharing my own coming-of-age journey, I had managed also to write chapters of other peoples lives. The very first response I received was from a seventy-three-year-old Irishman who wrote to share that he too had experienced great losses in his childhood, but because of what I had written, he could now go to his final rest in peace. In another part of the world, a young mother from a remote African village shared that she had read my book to her young children as an example of the importance of perseverance.

When we share our life stories, we invite others to share their own and in so doing offer ourselves a chance to find a common narrative, a more unifying story of family, faith, fortitude, and forgiveness that transcends distance and difference.

Hearing those stories is what inspired me to write this book.

The lighthouse is a perfect symbol for what I have learned from others lives. In a flat world, the lighthouse is the tallest structure in the sea; set amid this alternatingly peaceful and turbulent environment, the lighthouse is noble, selfless, steady, and faithful. It requires no recognition and seeks no reward. Rarely will you see a name on a lighthouse; its identifying features are found in its beautiful and poetic design. The lighthouse does not judge or ask how the traveler has come to be in danger; after all, it finds itself in the same storm. Neither does it concern itself with socioeconomic status or the political party to which the voyager might belong. The lighthouse has but one mission: to protect the journey of the traveler.

We need the symbolism of the lighthouse now more than ever. In the film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Samwise Gamgee paints a vivid picture of the great need for these timeless structures.

How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad has happened? But in the end, its only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too young to understand why.... Folks in those stories had lots of chances of turning back but they didnt, because they were holding on to somethingthat theres still some good in this world and its worth fighting for.

The need to find goodness, to believe that all will be well, to find some virtue in the land, is a perpetual yearning of humanity. This desire sends us searching for heroes, looking upward to celebrities, kings, presidents, executives, or anyone seemingly above us to offer us guidance and direction. The elevated hero is often placed in front of us as an example of that which we should aspire to. But I have learned that another kind of heroism exists. It is found in the lives of the seemingly ordinary people who live alongside us, their unpresuming lives often unknown, ever valuable because of what we can learn from them. Having an impact on the world is not reserved just for those who have the means and the visibility to do so. The stories of everyday heroes are the ones I have been drawn to, and these are the stories that will unfold in these pages.