The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed. Genesis 12:1-4a New Living Translation (NLT)
The Ripple Effect: The continuous and spreading outward results of an event or an action.
Ripples, caused when an object is dropped into water, creates and forms small waves or lines that spread across the surface of the water. We know about the Ripple Effect: the words/actions of so many named and unnamed followers of Christ (with titles and without titles) who were/are committed and dedicated, loving God, self, and others. Those whose passion was ignited, reignited, and who held on with hope informed by God’s Word and their experiences with the Divine.
General Assembly 226 is upon us! We live in a time when communities face violence of every kind, there is war, political unrest, and economic uncertainty. We have more information and knowledge available, although clarity, accuracy, truth, wisdom, and common sense seem lost. And, as followers of Christ, we live, serve and lead with HOPE, trusting the power of the Living Word and the Spirit’s work.
This text instructs us to consider our opportunities to decide together, day by day, whether we will be used by God to create ripples to spread and to live the gospel. Will we be a part of God’s Ripple Effect?
The Ripple Effect:
- Sometimes requires urgent responses to God’s commands. Get up. Get moving. Get out. Get going. Move. God’s timing. Not ours.
- Requires giving God intimate access to our entire lives. A personal relationship with God includes God prioritizing, re-prioritizing, shaping and re-shaping our relationships.
- Our impact is on the whole world! No limits. Every word, every action, every movement, every task, indeed all mission and ministry for the glory of God will cause the ripple effect.
Consider some lyrics to the song “The Impossible Dream” (The Quest):
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To right the unrightable wrong
No matter how hopeless
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause
We have an open invitation from our God to dream, imagine, act together. What shifts in our hearts, minds, and spirits are needed to create God’s Ripple Effect? This is our Quest, following our God no matter what.
The Ripple Effect. Are you in?
— Rev. Dr. Barbara Wilson
