butterflies

I recently read a book entitled, "Butterfly in Brazil". The author is Glenn Packiam; a worship pastor and director of New Life School of Worship for New Life Church in Colorado. I had the privilege of participating in two of his classes at a recent conference in Charlotte. In one of these classes, he gave a little insight into the idea for his book. So, I bought the book.

I'm sure that a lot of you have heard the phrase, "the butterfly effect". This statement has been used over the years to try and explain the changes in weather around the world, due to some atmospheric occurrence in a remote location. The original phrase went like this....."If a butterfly flaps its wings in Brazil, does it cause a tornado in Texas?" Sounds a little silly to think that something so small, in a country so far away, could have such a major effect on the homes of people that live in a small country like Texas. But, when we live the life of a Christ follower; isn't that what happens? We are challenged by scripture to be like Christ in our everyday life, but most of us (myself included) look at the life of Christ and how He touched the lives of all the people he met, and we adopt the defeated attitude of......"Who am I?" We look at the enormous impact of Jesus and then we see how small we are...............Why try? I've been there, and to be honest.......there are times that I am still there. On some days, I feel even smaller than the day before. And yet, I want to be a Christ follower in the biggest way. I want to have an impact on the lives of people I know, and on the lives of people I have yet to meet.

Have you ever read in the Bible that if you have only the faith of a mustard seed, you could move a mountain? Or maybe, if you would just do a simple thing like flap your butterfly wings, you could help in creating a tornado. If you are reading this, and you took advantage of flapping your wings with "Whatever It Takes", then you know of the "tornado" that you helped to create. So many families were touched by you and your willingness to help. And not only in this community, but in other communities as well. Did you know that there are other churches that are now trying out their wings because of you? What started out as a small idea (flap), is continuing to grow and spread.

Thanks to all the beautiful butterflies out there.