Are You Leaving Ripples?

Even though I am technically a city girl, I do love the outdoors. Except swimming in lakes. Nope, my water has to be chlorinated. I am all too familiar with snakes to want to swim with one.

One of the outdoor things I never learned how to do was to skip rocks. I have since learned that I should have used rocks that were flatter instead of round. My round rocks would just plunk in the water, but I did think it was cool to see all the ripples they would leave behind. The ripples seemed to keep on going, spreading out in a beautiful, predictable pattern.

Our lives are kind of like those ripples. One life touches another, which touches another, which touches another, and on and on…. The impact we have on even one person can multiply into impacting many lives. I thought about this recently as I attended a funeral of a godly man who lived a beautiful life of integrity and faith. He impacted his family and friends to love God and serve Him wholeheartedly.

Even though I didn’t really know this man very well, his life greatly impacted mine because the people he influenced made an impact on me. I am very close to his family. They are part of my faith story. They are some of those “ripple people” who changed the trajectory of my life by causing a ripple in my relationship with God. Like ripples in a lake, that man’s legacy of faith had spread in a beautiful pattern, causing ripples in the lives of others.

The interesting thing is that people who leave a legacy of faith don’t typically know they are doing it. They are building that legacy in the mundane activities of daily life, the consistent living out of their love for God. A monetary inheritance left for those we love will eventually be gone. The impact we leave upon the souls of other people is the only thing that will last for eternity. Is there anyone who will be in heaven because of your influence? Is there anyone who can say they know God better because of your impact? Then you’ve left some ripples.

In just a few short generations, there will be nobody left on this earth who will personally remember you. It’s kind of a depressing thought, but those future generations who never met you will not have had a personal interaction with you, so how can you impact them? Simple. By impacting people today who will impact them, who will impact others. It reminds me of my favorite Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” One life touches many others.

I don’t want my life to leave a barely perceptible bump to make a faint ripple. I hope to share  excitement that crashes into others with the impact of the gospel to cause enormous waves. I want swells that spread and culminate into rolling waters. I want colossal surfs that collide into the lives of others to form white-capped breakers! The spray is enticing. The tide is in. Let’s take people surfing!