Chaos theory says that every small change can lead to a significant, unpredictable, and unexpected outcome. So a butterfly that flaps its wings in Zimbabwe can cause a tornado in Tennessee. Not right away, of course, but the ripples from its tiny action can be felt around the world.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that when one object exerts a force on another, the second object exerts a force of equal strength in the opposite direction on the first object.
When you throw a pebble into a pond, the action of the pebble hitting the water creates ripples that spread outward. The bigger the pebble, the bigger the wave. When you change something in your life, it has the same effect.
The point is that everything has an impact on something else i.e. Newton’s third law. We do not always know what that impact will be, we just know it’s going to happen. Change is inevitable because there are always actions and reactions happening in our lives.
Competing reactions.
When ripples collide with other ripples they interfere with each other. That can create patterns where they combine and make larger waves or cancel each other out. Our lives are not independent even if that is our desire. It is constant waves coming from us and to us.
Things can get pretty complex with interactions bouncing off one another. It’s how we get triggered, trigger others and create new waves.
What I do can impact what you do and send off a wave in a whole new direction. Our ripples can also collaborate and make far greater changes than they could alone.
Life ripples, from others we know and some that we have never heard of (the butterfly in Zimbabwe), are continually lapping against our lives. Good, bad, big, small, physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, health, government etc. are all in play.
Ripples hit us daily. Sometimes they seem to come out of nowhere and others we see headed our way and we have to brace for impact.
That means it is probably a good idea to see what pebbles are being dropped into us from the outside world as well as those we choose to plunk into our own hearts.
Everything has meaning, everything has potential impact.
Nothing is arbitrary or without some importance. Even the daily mundane impacts our nervous system, our motivation, and dreams. Sleeping, eating, daily self-care, or lack of it, will affect our mood, behavior and walk with God.
Our reactions to life are our ripples running into the other ripples hitting us from all sides.
You’ve probably guessed that this month our topic is how what we do or don’t do, what is done to us or isn’t, how we are intentional about our lives or laid back, all determine what impacts us and how. It all matters.
Have solid boundaries on what can be dropped into you.
Life changing ripples can come from seemingly insignificant interactions. Books. Movies. Music. Sermons. Nature. People. The Word. Old wounds and new.
We cause ripples in our lives by what we think and do, what we ingest and release, and who we are with. We don’t think about it much but every day we live in a very active pond.
It’s your life, your pond, you can control to some extent who has access to it. You have almost total control of what you bring into your life that has the potential to impact you in good and bad ways.
Be holy for I Am holy.
Recently the Lord impressed upon me that some movies I watched, while seemingly not a big deal, were creating ripples that would impact who I am. I immediately chose to remove them.
He also asked me to add in a deeper study of a particular book of the Bible. I’m on it.
What did God do? He removed those pebbles that disturbed my pond (sorry, but I’m going to stick with this metaphor the whole way through this letter) and added in one big one that would push out other ripples and overpower them.
I’ve heard many people say that they had to stop watching the news or remove themselves from social media or add in Christian music, stay away from certain people, change churches etc. to clean up and protect their hearts.
Awareness is the first step in regulating not only how the world impacts us but also how our daily habits and thinking and interactions do as well. Then we can drop in new pebbles or stop plunking in what is not advantageous. What if you were totally aware of the plunk, plunk that happens daily? Might that empower you to have a bit more control over your life?
When God points out what He would like us to control, it is for our good. Our obedience in even a small way can have an immediate, as well as an eternal impact. So can our disobedience.
We will start here.
What obvious pebbles are dropping into you?
What might change in your life if you were intentional and protective about what you allowed to stir your waters?
Where are you obedient and those ripples are impacting your life (that can include how others react)?
Where are you not obedient and what impact is that making on your life, heart, thinking?
Ripples are inevitable. Some are meant to destroy us.
We have an enemy trying to drop boulders into the waters nearest us hoping to overpower the good that God drops into our lives continually. He’s good at it and he seems to throw them at us from different directions so that we are hit in many different ways at the same time. We end up on defense instead of asking God Himself to drop into our lives to overpower what he is attempting.
My goal is to have God be the biggest impact at the center of my life so that everything else hits His ripples and is absorbed before it can do any damage to my heart.
Let’s flap our wings and create some ripples.
Do not discount your impact on your world. Your wing flapping might seem as significant as a butterfly’s to you but remember that it can change the world down the road.
Marla brought me to Christ and I have never been the same. She was the pebble God used and what she did has rippled through me to change a thousand lives. It is still causing waves. She had no idea that our conversations that night would ripple into my seminary degree, transformational counseling, books, and a life dedicated to loving God and making Him known.
Recognize that what you do, and even what you don’t, is impactful. Be faithful in small ways and then allow God to use that to ripple however He sees fit. You may not know what happened from your faithfulness until you meet someone in eternity that was impacted by you.
Be careful and intentional of the ripples you cause. Our ripples might be changing something in someone met only yesterday or on the other side of the world. We don’t know what those ripples might be but we can absolutely know that they are happening. If you were to carry a bag of pebbles just so you could stir up the waters, what might they be?
Pebbles that bring life & light
The Word
Prayer
Study – the life-changing kind
Connection with healthy others
Being in God’s creation
Creativity
A grateful heart…
Pebbles that weigh you down
Social Media of all kinds
The inner bully
Unhealthy connections
A too small life
Fear
Staying silent
Lacking purpose…
Little things, small waves that lap at us constantly can be ignored or discounted but they add up. Water is powerful.
It splits, dissolves and transports even great rocks. It can create new pathways with ravines and canyons. It flows around, under or over obstacles. It’s flow affects habitats and the life around it. Clean water is life giving.
Your pond and what you allow in it is important.
Where are you flapping your wings and impacting the world?
What decisions are others making that impact you?
I’ve been working with a woman in another state. Her wounds are being healed, she is being set free and finding a purpose for her life with Christ. I expect that she will be sending out ripples in vast amounts. Her pastor’s wife recommended me to her. I don’t know anyone in that state so couldn’t figure out who it was. But the last time I talked with her she told me who the woman was.
I’d worked with the woman who referred me almost two decades ago. She’d become a doctor, had three children and the work we had done together was still great enough that she remembered me to another.
The pebble Marla dropped into me and the pebble I dropped into my former client are still rippling out decades later.
Take time this month to clarify what you allow to be dropped into you. Think of what you can add, delete and change to make the purity of your butterfly flapping impactful. Never doubt that God will honor every effort of yours to be holy before Him and spread His holiness around.
Just think what we can do together.