moments of impact

I watched a youtube video today on the butterfly effect by Andy Andrews. It was really interesting about the way one person can make such an impact literally on generations sometimes in a single moment. I put the link   (the first of 3 each under 10 min) below for those interested in watching it.

In life we seem to have those moments of impact. Maybe not to quite the extreme of the billions of people that Andy talks about in one of the videos, but I think we've all had them. I've had several of those moments where I'm not exactly sure why they are significant in the moment but I believe that they are. Maybe it has something to do with this "butterfly effect". I once had a thought about fireworks and how our lives are often like them. Sometimes people know who set them off, other times people just seem them from a distance having no idea who set them off, but even if just for a moment get a glimpse of beauty and are filled with joy.

I can think of 3 instances off the top of my head that I have felt that. One was in a gym with someone asking me some questions about my faith that I had no idea how to answer, but I went home that night and starting studying looking for the answers to those questions. That day I saw this incredible potential in this person who asked me the questions that I couldn't explain, and still can't, but I am confident that it is there. That day too, I made a decision to do something that scared me to death but did it anyway because I believed it was what I needed to do. I wrote down what I learned and dropped it in his pickup, just hoping he wouldn't find it til I was gone. haha I wasn't so brave back in those days, but I've wondered since, if I had let that fear win out would I have continued that pattern over the years?

Another was in a classroom with someone asking if I had ever read the Bible all the way through. I don't remember if I had or not, but I made a decision then to do so either for the first time or once again. It spurred me on to continuing to do what I thought was important. And once again I saw potential in someone, that just maybe they were hungering for something more, something important, something that lasts.

The last was after a big rainstorm sitting in the stands at a football game. Someone was walking past and we made eye contact and then sat in the stands behind me and talked to my friend, they were former classmates. We started talking some here and there after that... you know those easy conversations not the forced ones, and from that I was able to move on from something that wasn't meant to be, but that I had clung to for almost two years. And that potential and hope for that person's future to be blessed and to find those good things came once again.

Since these moments I have started praying for each one off and on through the years, I don't always understand it or even see it, but I believe that God works in our lives in amazing ways. Maybe I didn't have the same impact on them that they had on me, but I am certain that God can do incredible things when we ask Him. And maybe that is what my part is meant to be in their lives. Maybe that is why those moments impacted me the way that they did, because maybe they are meant to do incredible things in their lives, and my role is to call upon the One who can bring out that potential and mold and shape their lives into something amazing.

  "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." Romans 8: 28 (ESV)



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nnrz9HGjj_U&feature=related

sweet innocence

Upon finishing a book in the Anne of Green Gables series I find myself wishing for that world of sweet innocence. I hear people talk a lot about wanting to live in those older days where things were simpler. Personally, I enjoy the technologies of today, but I wish for that innocence and the decorum people used to display. That idea that certain things are sacred, that some things should be left unsaid in keeping with good taste.

We live in a world that is growing increasingly unashamed of things that we should not be unashamed of. I get on facebook and have to hide so many of the posts because of the lack of propriety shown. I see girls posting pictures of themselves in bikinis and wonder were is their self-respect? I see all the bad language that is used. Maybe it doesn't seem like a big deal, but even the little things can cause cracks in our self-control.

But I love reading books like I did tonight, where God is still held in reverence, the marriage bed is kept pure, and decency is what is expected not something rare. It holds a life that is simpler, not necessarily because of technology or lack of it, but because of the character of people. 

"For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly."

Psalms 84:8-9 (ESV)

change

I have never been a huge fan of change, but I love the idea of potential. Ironic because I don't know how you reach potential without doing things at least a little different than you have been. And maybe that is why potential is rarely reached, because it demands change. Potential is a beautiful thing though. It allows you to look past your fears and focus on something bigger, something with meaning, with purpose.

Maybe the hard part with change is that there are parts of life at present that we love, and we become unwilling to let that part go even if something better could be waiting. From a purely business stand point, I can see why staying the same would be a bad thing. If I kept the money I made, and never invested in the future I would have that money only as long as I didn't spend it on something different that wouldn't allow me to grow, and then I would be done. The benefits of change are apparent in business, but often allusive in life because we often sit there looking at the risk and forgetting that there could be a payoff.

The point of all of this is not to take bigger risks and expect great payoffs because there is also that other side  that the bigger the risk the higher the rate of failure. The point is that change is one of those things that comes with risks, and you don't have to just throw everything that is working out the window in order to get that greener grass. And maybe the change is not to get the greener grass on the other side. Maybe it is to make the grass we already have greener, to reach or at least come closer to reaching that potential that we each have inside of us, to do those great things God put each of us here to do. Maybe the change is the catalyst to becoming who we are meant to be.


"The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord." Proverbs 16:3 (ESV)

a suitable helper

A couple years ago I was sitting out on the deck at a cabin in Ruidoso with a good friend of mine catching up. It was spring break and a group of us decided to spend at least part of it in New Mexico. As we were talking he started telling me that one of his goals in life was to eventually become an elder, but he was single, and part of the command in Scripture for elders is to be the husband of one wife and that his children be believers. So much of his future goal hinged on finding a woman to spend the rest of his life with, but not just any woman, one who would be faithful to him, who would help him raise their future children to be faithful.

This past weekend I got to see him get married to such a woman. It took me back to that time in Ruidoso as we were sitting and talking, both knowing that God is faithful in His answers to our prayers and the success of the plans committed to Him, but also knowing that our ways are not always His, and the uncertainties that go along with that. It's easy to look back in hindsight and see God's faithfulness in our lives; it's another thing to wait patiently for that faithfulness, but if we do wait on God, He answers in incredible ways. It's amazing to see His answers in action. I'm excited to see what God has planned for these two. I expect nothing less than incredible as they continue to grow in the Lord and together for the rest of their lives.

"Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." ~Proverbs 16:3

Pulling up weeds

I was out running a couple days ago and saw a man picking weeds out of his yard. He was pulling them out by the roots so that they wouldn't grow back again. The day after that it was beginning to drizzle a little bit and then today we had an amazing rain. I'm hoping this is the beginning to the ending of our drought. I thought back to the man picking his weeds, by pulling up the weeds by the roots ahead of time, the man saved himself a lot of time later on. It's not the weeds will never grow back, but my guess is they will not be as many or as big.

It got me to thinking about our lives. I wonder if sometimes God doesn't give us "droughts" so that we can pull up the weeds in our own lives before the rain comes. Sometimes it is easier to acknowledge our need for God in the hard times of life, then when we become busy because of all of our blessings He has given to us. So maybe that is the reason for droughts in our lives, that we can make preparations, stop the old bad habits and start good habits now when we feel more dependent on Him so that it will carry through when He has blessed us so richly that we become engrossed in what He has blessed us with, that we might not forget His goodness.

Something I love about God is His ability to bring good out of everything in our lives. Often we just have to look past what we might think is a bad situation to see the good that is there. It's not always obvious, but it's there.

  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28 (NIV)

importance of the righteous

I've been reading a lot about the kings of Israel and Judah lately. It is so interesting how one man can make such an impact on a nation of people in his lifetime. (As a side note there is a great need to pray for the leaders of our nation because of the impact he/she makes.) For each king a reference was made for his character, whether he followed the laws of God or not and the nation followed his lead. More often than not if he did follow God's laws, the reference was something to the effect of him serving the LORD "as David had done." God Himself describes David as "a man after His own heart." Can you imagine having God say that about you?

I think it would be incredible! I believe this nation needs leaders who are righteous who will do everything the Lord commands, but I don't think it is simply up to the leaders of our nation. I think it can begin with us. It amazes me who God uses in the Bible to carry out His great plans. He chose Moses who believed himself to not be eloquent of speech to lead a nation of over a million people. He chose Jonah who was unwilling (at first and had to have a change of heart himself) to change the heart of a huge city. He chose Joseph who was hated by his brothers and sold into slavery to save Egypt and the surrounding peoples from 7 years of famine. He uses the strong and the weak to accomplish His will. Maybe we weren't put here to do anything on that grand of a scale, but I believe that the stand of the righteous is effective through Christ. Just one righteous person can make a difference, a town can do a lot, a nation can change the world.

We've been talking in class about Satan being the ruler over darkness and Christ being the light. I got to thinking that light always dispels darkness. If you light a match in the darkness, it is no longer dark in the area that the light touches. Only when the light is hidden or turned off can the darkness prevail. The same is true in our own lives.

"After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’" ~Acts 13:22 (NIV)

purpose of a goal

I was thinking today about the purpose of goals. It's easy to want to accomplish things when I am motivated to do them, but the moments after that initial motivation is gone, often leave a strong pull to quit. Goals however often are what help me to keep persisting even when I'm tired and don't want to keep going.

When I was in college I went to a dessert supper one time at a teacher's house who had several different speakers come talk to us. I can't remember exactly what it was about... business related. There was one piece of advice that just about every one of the speakers hit on which stuck with me. It was the idea of deciding ahead of time of what you were going to do. In essence saying, "I'm going to do the right thing regardless of the cost." It takes the decision out in the split second where it is easy to waiver and do the wrong thing.

The same thing can be applied to goals. Instead of focusing on the obstacles, time is better served focusing on how to get it done despite the setbacks. So often this is where the biggest benefits come from sticking with the goals. As I've been going through the 90 day challenge, there are moments that I struggle and muddle my way through. Since I first started reading through my Bible, I have struggled through the different feasts, and the layout of the temple and some of the other laws that are found within those first few books, but today as I was reading I came across the heart of what all those commands are getting at. It says in Deuteronomy 7:24, "And the LORD commanded us do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, FOR OUR GOOD ALWAYS, that He might preserve us alive, as we are this day." Another passage talks about "the faithful God" and about His "steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments."

Sometimes in the middle of it the goal looks pointless... Maybe we read about a law that doesn't necessarily pertain to us anymore, or we run those miles when we don't have the time or energy, or whatever else it is, but we do it... and then eventually the purpose shows up. It isn't always crystal clear at the time, but is so often rewarded when we don't give up. Many times it is the accumulation of time spent with a goal that allows that goal to reach its full potential in our lives, and what seemed pointless at the time eventually becomes life changing not because each time was perfect, but because we persisted and kept going even when it seemed easier to quit.

"The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession..." Deuteronomy 7:6 (ESV)