It’s always cool to reflect back on various events that have occurred in my life and over the course of my journey in the faith.  My family and I have taken some bold and big steps over the course of the last year, leading up to baptizing my family last month.  This was by far one of the biggest highlights I could have ever experienced and will probably ever experience in this lifetime.  To see my family follow in obedience to the Lord and to make that statement as a family was tremendous.

At the time all of this has occurred and then with the events from the past year, I never really thought about the real impact that these moments have.  Not just on us, but on those around us. I’ve reflected on this a good bit and in the conversations I’ve had with many people, I realize just how powerful things like this are and the ripple effect that can come from such events happening.  It’s been rather amazing to see the impact this has had on the lives of others, not just our story, but the message that came from us standing there as a family and declaring that we are all going to follow Christ.

My pastor talked about this afterwards in his sermons and in our conversations.  That one event that happens, or encountering one person now with a focus on the Lord, can have an impact, even years down the road, that we may never see coming.  It’s rather amazing to think about. Think about a rock being thrown into a pond.  The ripples that come out from that one rock, go on and on.  The energy transfer from the impact of the rock sends not just one ripple, but several.

I look back on past events that had a ripple effect on me.  Going back about 4 years ago, a colleague of my handed me a book.  Going through a dark time in my life, unsure of direction, I receive this book called Wild at Heart.  I had already begun a journey of reading through the Word, but was still unsure of how to put it together.  This book sat though.  It sat on my desk in my home office for about a year to year and a half.

Then I pick up the book one day, out of nowhere.  I begin to read it.  Taking my time, began to absorb it.  The lights began to come on.  I was pulled into more readings which intrigued me more.  There was real movement happening.  Then I fly to Colorado for the Wild at Heart Boot Camp.  There, life is never the same again.  I surrendered my life to Christ out there and came home a completely different man.  I was the man I was supposed to be.  Who God had made me to be.  My whole life changes direction as I was now on fire for the Kingdom.  My family begins to respond and see tremendous growth.  We begin to forge real Christ centered relationships. I am Baptized last summer and then 5 months later I Baptize my wife and our 3 kids.  The ripple effect of that one colleague thinking enough of me to hand me a book, 4 years later has made a tremendous impact.

Now from that, the ripple effects continue.  I see the impact it has made on so many.  Friends now even more hopeful that their own family will begin to respond to the Gospel as well.  Men impacted by me being willing to lead my family by example and how it has changed them.  I don’t know how far these ripples will go, but the movement is tremendous and I know they will continue to flow.

If we continue to respond in obedience and follow the Lord and live that out, the effects can be more than you’d ever imagine.  Acts 19:20 “So the message of about the Lord spread widely and had powerful effect.”  That’s what can happen when we continue to respond to the Gospel and use the opportunities laid before us to share and demonstrate how the Lord has changed our own lives.  You never know how far the ripples will go.  As Paul wrote, “May you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep his love is” (Ephesians 3:18).  God’s reach is boundless and He is using each of and our stories and lives to have a ripple effect to continue to spread the Gospel and Christ changes lives.

It can all start with one simple thing, so take advantage when it laid before you as you never know how far the ripple effects will go.