Ripples

Let's say you feed someone today who is hungry.  Then that person, now no longer hungry, decides to not break into someone's house and rob them for things to sell for food.  Then the homeowner does not shoot the would be thief and take away a child's father and have to live with killing someone who was hungry for the rest of his life.  And on and on and on it goes.

In life everything ripples.  What you do and what you don't do.  It all has an effect.  Not just on your immediate space but out into the infinite.  The choices you make, the actions you take ripple out to affect every one else.  You may not see it.  You may not even think about it.  But it happens nevertheless.  It is a reaction to what you do, what you say, what you choose.

Most people only live in the right now.  They cannot see what happens in the future.  They cannot look out and watch the ripples of their actions as they move across time and space to reach countless others.  If they did and if they could, most people would make very different choices in life, take very different actions.  But for most their only concern is right now and what it will do or not do for them in that moment.  It is the way most humans are and have always been.  Is it any wonder why the ripples aren't so lovely a lot of the time?

On your very next choice today or your very next decision to action, think about what that decision is going to do outside of your very own ripple.  Consider for just one second that what you are saying, doing, choosing and how it is going to ripple out.

THINK
T= Is it true?
H= Is it helpful?
I= Is it inspiring?
N= Is it necessary?
K= Is it kind?

Just taking the time to THINK can make all the difference in your own ripple and the ripples of countless others you cannot even imagine.  What are your ripples going to be today?

A Helping Hand

I attended my first Billings Senior High school football game on Friday night and I was struck by several things while watching.  Surprisingly, some were football related and some were life related and at the end I realized, maybe football is a metaphor for life itself.

Coach Chris Murdock and his staff are doing a great job with the team so far this year.  It's a whole new situation for both he and the players and they all seem to be handling it very well.  The team is now 2-1 on the year and in both wins they have been convincingly strong. The game was exciting with the score being close at times and with some really big plays from both the offense and defense.  I can't wait for the next home game!

While watching the game I noticed that many of the players play both sides of the ball, offense and defense.  They are used in a multitude of ways and on a wide variety of plays.  There's a lot being thrown at them in those short minutes of the game and they have to be able to multi-task without error if they want to win the game.  Such is life as well.  So much is going on every minute of the day.  People are asked to do many things at one time and they are expected to do so without error with more and more being added to the plate at any given moment.  Football teaches both the players and the watchers that multi-tasking is just an expected part of life.

As I watched more of the game, I also noticed that sometimes a great play or player can go virtually unnoticed but it makes a big difference in the outcome.  As in life, sometimes in the background someone can do something or create something that makes a huge difference in how things work but it can go unnoticed by those it affects.  Does it make it any less worthy?  Of course not.  This teaches both the watchers and the players that sometimes you may not get credit for doing something good or right but it doesn't mean you shouldn't keep on doing it.  Doing what's right or good is never wrong even if no one sees or you never get that pat on the back.

The last thing and possibly the most important was a helping hand.  Football is a rough game.  You are going to take a lot of hard knocks.  More than once, however, I saw the player who did the tackling extend a hand to help up the one he had knocked down.  More than once, I saw the player who did the knocking pat the knocked down on the back as if to say, good job.  So it is in life.  It is a rough go every day, for some much more than others.  Constantly getting knocked down.  How wonderful is it when someone extends a helping hand? Just that little bit of helping you back up as if to say okay so you got knocked down, here I will help you get back up and this time I know you will not get knocked down again by the same thing.  What if everyone had a helping hand every day?  How much more successful would we all be as a result?

Football is like life in so many ways.  It teaches both the watchers and the players that things get difficult sometimes, that you get knocked down, that you may have to fight harder to win and that sometimes you lose, but in the end there's a helping hand to pick you up and help you start again.  I can't wait for the next game!

Walk A Mile

We have all heard the saying "walk a mile in someone else's shoes" probably more times than we can remember in our lives.  But how many of us have actually taken the time to do so BEFORE we make assumptions about the person? I would venture to say it's a very, very small percentage.

So quick most of us are to make assumptions about the people we see each and every day.  Most of us will move to a conclusion in a matter of nanoseconds about the why of what someone looks like or what they are doing before we ever think about the why from inside their shoes.

The guy on the corner with a sign asking for money or help.  What's your first assumption?  Is it that he really needs the money? Go ahead tell the truth to yourself right now.  For many of us, the assumption is that he's doing it to make money, like it's his job.  Or that he's doing it for money for drugs or alcohol.  Or that his life choices landed him there and he's responsible for his plight in life.  Or hundreds of other assumptions.  Do we stop to take his shoes and put them on and actually try and find out the truth of WHY?  Not likely.  Most of us will drive right on by.

The teenage girl who is pregnant.  What's your first assumption? Is it that she wanted to get pregnant on purpose? Is it that she chose not to use protection so she deserves the outcome? Is it that she must sleep around a lot and it was bound to happen? Is it because she wanted to hold on to a guy? Take her shoes and find out the truth of WHY.

The person on welfare.  What are your first thoughts?  That they are too lazy to work?  That they want the government and thereby you to support them?  That they buy cigarettes and alcohol and then the government (and you) pay for everything else? That they chose this life? Put your feet in their shoes and find out the truth of WHY.

Most of us make assumptions every day about others we encounter.  People we do not know at all.  Have never met.  Never talked to.  People that just pass by and we make judgments on their lives in a fleeting second based on our own beliefs, prejudices, bigotry, and yes hatred.  Most of us never take the time to slip out of our own comfortable existence to put on shoes that might not fit and find out the truth of the WHY and many of us who do this call ourselves Christians.  Many of us say the phrase, judge not lest ye be judged but we never, ever practice it in reality.  We never walk a mile or a minute or a microsecond in another's shoes before we assume.  How about today?