I don’t know how many of you have read Ray Bradbury’s Sound of Thunder, guessing not many. In this futuristic sci-fi story, time travel has been invented. A company has used it to start a thrill seeking adventure of dinosaur hunting. Please hang with me to the end of this. I know many of you are getting ready to move on to another blog, but this has a point to it in the end. I am just using a story to set the stage. So the people that do this have to make sure that they do not do one small thing to change anything in the past or it could completely alter history. If you are not into Bradbury and don’t want to spend 20 minutes of your life reading this short story to find out how they do this and the results, you can always check out the Simpson’s Halloween spoof of this story. Homer’s dad gives him advice that if he ever goes back in time he must make sure he doesn’t change anything or history would be altered. While trying to fix a broken toaster Homer turns his toaster into a time machine. He goes back in time and accidentally kills a bug. When he returns to the modern world he realizes that life is completely different. He then keeps trying to go back and correct what has been wronged. I am including the rest of the video here for you to enjoy.
Now I am going to get to the point of this post. This sci-fi story gets its idea from the Chaos Theory. It is a mathematical theory that states is you change an initial condition of something even if the change is minor, it can have tremendous changes and outcomes over time. I must warn you that clicking on the link to Chaos Theory above could have negative effects. I started reading about it earlier and started suffering severe headaches until I passed out. It is far more complex than my mind works. Here is a quote centered on the Chaos theory.
“It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.” --Chaos Theory
I thought of this earlier today and I was wondering if there was a factor that I could change in my life, whether large or small, that could have a tremendous Butterfly Effect for the Kingdom of God. What if I could start just the smallest change in my life that would ripple out and affect someone else’s life, which would then continue to ripple further and further? Ultimately this could have huge impact for God and the case for Christ.
What do you think?
About Me
- David Willy
- I am a husband and a father and I pray that I will continue to look more like Christ to my wife and children each day. I pray that all that I do will be used to give glory to the Father and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
Since I tend to fall in line with Calvin, I'm not sure I can follow the whole butterfly effect theory. It seems to me that it would imply that changes that I make can have a far-reaching impact for God's Kingdom. As in, "I, Me" made the impact. Ultimately, the change or impact will result from the work of God.
ReplyDeleteI don't know. It's an interesting concept and one that I have not considered before. God can certainly use our lives to impact others, but the agent of change will always be God.
I agree whole heartedly that it will be God's work being done. But if I don't do anything God isn't going to use me to do the work. He will either have to use someone else or the work doesn't get done.
ReplyDeleteSo outside of using Believers, God doesn't get anything accomplished?
ReplyDeleteThis whole concept baffles me. I can sit and think about it all day. I tell my youth all the time that their decisions echo on and on and on and effect people that they don't even know. Like by choosing to go to Taco Bell instead of Whataburger. You are effecting the lives of the workers those people in the resturaunt the business as a whole. Those people go home and effect their families and so on. What happens when you take a different route to get home, you are effecting all those drivers around you that you wouldn't normally be around. If you went the other way would you have gotten into a wreck or been home later or earlier. How would your life be differnt. Am I getting off topic, i don't know. We have to make good decisions so that hopefully those echos or effects are creating good things and effecting good choices in others. It's almost like the pass it on things. Do something nice for someone then they do something nice for someone and on and on, but it works both ways good and bad. It was only one person that spoke to me about God and that has had a tremendous ripple effect on my life and on the lives of others.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary, Jeff. I wish that I could recall the reference, but there is a verse in the Old Testament that talks about a king's heart being like that of a river. God can bend it and curve it in any way He wants.
ReplyDeleteI'm not so sure about the agent of change being only God, though. If you mean that He will be the one who ultimately makes the change happen, then yes, you are correct. However, if you mean that we don't hold any influence with God, then what is the point of prayer? We get to see Abraham pray and convince God several times to spare Sodom and Gomorah if he can find 50, 10 and 5 righteous people in the city. God agrees each time.
Now, we can definitely get into some deep theology here. Did God intend all along for Abraham to ask and did He all along plan on "giving in"?
Either answer will only pose more questions. If He did plan on it all along, then where was Abraham's free will to choose to pray?
You could then argue that God simply forknew that Abraham would choose to pray...
Calvin does pose some very intriguing questions and theological debates. I will say, though, that some things, God intended to remain a mystery on this side of Heaven.
I suppose it all comes down to the extent of God's sovereignty. We all agree that God is sovereign, but to what extent does His sovereignty extend in this world?
ReplyDeleteProverbs 21:1 "The kings hearts are like channels of water in the hands of the Lord and He turns them wherever He wishes."
ReplyDeleteExcellent, Jeff!
ReplyDeleteGod is all powerful and can do anything that he wants to do with or with out us. But this is my point. In terms of salvation. Someone needs to come to the understanding of Christ and accept him to be saved. If I choose not to share the truths of Christ to a lost person and they don't hear about Christ from somewhere else and then die, then based on the belief that you have to have a belief in Christ for salvation, that would imply they go to hell. If I do choose to share Christ with a lost person and they accept and believe in him, then they have salvation. I believe when we choose to do something pleasing to God, it can having a positive impact for God's Kingdom and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, I agree with you. Perhaps we just package our thoughts in different manners because we seem to always come back to the same conclusions.
ReplyDeleteI believe changes we make now have a long lasting affect. Look at the example of the people wanting a King. That eventually led to the temple and the city of Jerusalem being destroyed.
ReplyDeleteThe conference I am currently at one of the speakers gave an excellent example of one person changing and that had an affect not on only one church but multiple churches.
What I am getting at is this, I believe we can make a positive change for the Church if we allow God to work in our lives. We need to listen to Him and not ourselves.