A Ripple Not A Wave

“Saruman believes it is only great power that can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I found it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay… small acts of kindness and love.”-Gandalf


A few days ago I read Acts 7:58

"Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul."

It might seem strange to open this post with a quote about kindness and then jump into Stephen's stoning which was assuredly not a kind act but there is a point to it. The stoning of Stephen caused a ripple effect. A single act (his stoning) set into motion the scattering of the Christians that fulfilled scripture and allowed the gospel to spread throughout the world. We get our first glimpse of Saul and the very next chapter starts out with "And Saul approved..." the stoning of Stephen started a course of Saul's life that would see him become one of the most well known Biblical figures and a writer of a great deal of the New Testament.

All that to say this, we are a culture obsessed with doing huge things and saving the world. Even realizing that only God can do that, we are so focused on making a single big impact we ignore the fact that such  a way isn't always a good thing. Think about it, a wave is a huge force that crashes against the coast and then disappears. But, a tiny touch of the water sends ripples out that just keep going and getting larger as they do.

Small acts are vastly important and we are so bent on only doing huge things that we miss the point. You can't know just how far a simple kind act will go. What you do for one person can spread and keep going and touch countless people. It is as J.R.R. Tolkien put it the small acts that matter. One big thing is strong but a thousand small things are better. We never know how far reaching a simple act can be, not for just the person it is done for, but for others who are reached because we start something.

We need to remove the mindset that says if it isn't big it doesn't matter. The people you walk by every day don't need something big, they just need one small thing. One intentional act that helps them see Christ's love. When Jesus fed the five thousand he didn't feed them from a full fishing net. He took something small and multiplied it. Bigger isn't always better. God's grace and love can be shown just as well through being intentional in small acts as it can through a massive movement.

If you want to make a difference don't wait for a 'once in a lifetime' moment. Just go and do something for a single person. That is how you make a difference, it might not change the world in an instant, but you have no idea just how far that one little act can reach.

Make ripples, not waves. The first starts out small and gets progressively larger with time. The other starts and then just fizzles out in a single impact.