Making ripples

When I was a kid one of the things that my younger brother and I enjoyed doing was tossing rocks into whatever body of water we happened to be near. If we were able to find small flat rocks we would try our hand at skipping them across the surface of the water. But more often than not, we would end up looking for the biggest rock we could find and then launch it as high as possible and into the water. Ker-thunk!

The rock would make a huge splash and send ripples every direction from the site of the splashdown. There was something very satisfying about that to me. (Not quite as satisfying as throwing Hotwheels cars at my brother in a dark basement, but that story is for another time.)

Our lives are kind of like a rock being tossed into the water. The bigger the force behind the rock, the bigger the resulting splash and ripples that are produced. As a Jesus follower I would argue that there is no bigger force behind someone's jumping into life than that of the Creator of the universe.

We can choose to slip rather silently into this life and keep our ripples to a minimum, or we can get a running start, jump, grab our knees to our chest and hit the water making the biggest splash possible! Cannonball!!!!

I think God is all about cannonballs! He created us to be ripple-makers. God poured His unconditional and infinite love into us so that we would share it wherever we go. Second only to His wanting us to love Him, God has commanded us to love our neighbors. Not just love "on" them.

When asked by a Pharisee, which was the greatest commandment, (at the time the Jews had listed more than 600 commandments), Jesus answered, "“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 22:37-39).

When followers of Christ obey this command, and love like this, ripples of God's love flow into the world. These ripples will keep going and going and going, long after you have made your splash. The way it works is, you touch a life, then that person touches a life, then that person touches a life, then that person touches a life and so on. Long after we are gone, lives will still be touched because of the splash that we made.

In a 2016 Sunday morning message, Pastor Jon Weece quoted 19th century pastor, Edward Everett Hale who said, "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. The something I ought to do, I can do. And by the grace of God I will." It is this kind of compassionate love that Jesus is speaking about when taught about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The love shown by the Samaritan who stopped to help the man along the side of the road who had been beaten and robbed could be defined as compassion; which is love based in action.

It is this kind of love that will send out big ripples. Being compassionate may often come with a price. And meeting the needs of others can be inconvenient. In Matthew chapter 16 God call us to deny ourselves and take up our cross if we want to follow Jesus (Matt. 16:24). 

For the longest time I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. Now however, I think it fits rather well into the idea of being a ripple-maker. God asks us to stop living for ourselves and to surrender our hearts to the Spirit. In this way we allow God's love to flow through us kind of like a conduit of compassion. 

I take this to mean that after this surrender, it should be second nature for us leverage our time, talents, and resources for the good of others. Unfortunately the Church and many in the pews often miss opportunities to do just that. Many church-goers have gotten into a comfort zone which they'd rather not leave. However that is just what we are called to do get out of our comfort zones. We as followers of Christ are to go where there is sadness and bring the hope of Jesus. We are to go where there is death and bring life because that is what Jesus did for us. By being born a baby and living as a man, Jesus brought a little taste of heaven to earth.

If you are not a follower of Jesus you may say that it is possible to be compassionate without being a Christian. I would agree. It is possible. However, the motivation may be different. I would base my desire to love others in this way by pointing to the example of Jesus, the one who came to save me. While a non-believer may have anyone of a number of reasons rooted in current secular social norms. 

I guess when it comes right down to it, I believe that God created me to show compassion to others in His name. I want to follow the example of Jesus. I don't always get it right. I have, however, decided that I want my life to make the biggest ripples possible. Let's get a running start!

CANNONBALL!!!