The Ripple Effect

There have only been three people in my life whose unbelievable faith has had a profound impact on my own. The funny thing is, I was not super close to any of these individuals. I knew them, but I did not know any of them very well. Isn’t that just like our God? Isn’t it just like Him to use someone outside of our innermost circle to make the biggest impression on our faith? He just loves to flex, doesn't He?

One of these people was a relative that my family did not see very often. One was someone that I worked with but did not hang out with otherwise. The third was someone I went to church with for a while. I knew his family better than him, and I didn’t even hang out with his family outside of church really. As of last week, all three of them are now in the throne room in the presence of the Almighty spending their days worshiping my Daddy and yours. 

My uncle Harold was one of these people. Most of my dad’s side of the family lives just outside of Atlanta. We have often traveled to Atlanta to visit my relatives, but we did not see him or his family on all of our visits. My dad has always been closest to his younger sister, so we saw her family the most when I was growing up. We would see Uncle Harold at family reunions and things like that. He was always a quiet man and would usually just sit by himself at those functions. I never really talked to him much to be honest. The things I found out about him at his funeral rocked me to my core and challenged my faith. 

Turns out, Uncle Harold used to take my aunt and cousins to church, sit in the parking lot until church was over, and then take them home. The preacher made sure that my uncle knew that he was welcome to come in any time he liked and asked why he never came in. Uncle Harold told the preacher that he knew that once he made the decision to go inside, there was no turning back. He believed this was a big decision and was not to be taken lightly or half-heartedly. Uncle Harold said there were some things in his life that he was not ready to give up yet, and he couldn’t bring himself to go inside until he was ready and able to give up the things in his life that God didn’t want him doing anymore. The preacher said he respected that, and he looked forward to the day that Uncle Harold decided to come in.

Some time later, Uncle Harold decided that he was ready to take the next step with Jesus and go into the church. From that day on Uncle Harold was in the church for every single service or Bible study they offered. I found out later that he never learned to read and could not read the Bible on his own, so he would sit right up front for both services on Sunday and the service on Wednesday taking in every word. He would go up to the church during the week and clean it too. The preacher said to him one day, “Harold, you know you don’t have to do that right?” Uncle Harold replied, “Preacher, this is God’s house, and it is my job as one of His own to help take care of it. It is the least I can do after what He has done for me.”

I sat in the pew at my uncle’s funeral and listened to the preacher telling these stories about him and realized I had missed a huge opportunity. I sat and took a good, long look at my own faith. Was my faith that strong? Did I take my relationship with God and Jesus that seriously? Did I hold the decision to start living for Jesus in such high regard? Did I have that kind of hunger and thirst for God’s word? 

As I was sitting and contemplating these things, a homeless man got up from the very last pew in the back, walked to the front of the church, and began to speak about my uncle. Tears flowed down this poor man’s face as he told stories of how my uncle was the first and only person that ever treated him like a normal human being, stories of how my uncle never looked down on him, and stories of how my uncle saw this man as an equal and how that had meant the world to him. I began to pray at that moment that my life would be even half as fruitful as my uncle’s had been and asked God to forgive me for not taking the time to get to know this incredible man better. My Uncle Harold had left me so much wisdom during his funeral; I can only imagine how much wisdom he could have passed on to me if I had just taken the time to talk to him more while he was alive. 

The second person was a woman named Wendy that was one of the preschool teachers here at Next Level. Wendy was an amazing lady. She was absolutely wonderful with the kids, and everyone loved her. She volunteered with her husband in kids ministry at their church before finding out that he had been having an affair for quite some time. I met with the preschool staff periodically throughout the year to have check-ins and always asked at the end of our meeting how I could be praying for them. Without fail, Wendy would ask me to pray for her husband every time. He had said and done some horrible things to her, but she still wanted people to be praying for him. She never said anything bad about him or the other woman that he was now living with. One of her biggest hearts desires was for him to be covered in prayer. She would tell everyone that, while this was the hardest thing she had ever had to go through, she knew God had a plan, and she trusted it. 

Wendy was diagnosed with stomach cancer almost two years after I met her. She became very ill very quickly. It broke my heart to see her in such pain and declining so fast. Through it all, she stayed positive and continued to tell people that God was with her, and she trusted Him. She also continued to ask us to pray for her ex-husband in the midst of her illness. She was always thinking of others. 

Her faith in God and her unwillingness to speak unkindly of others, even those that had caused her so much pain, truly inspired me. Once again I found myself examining my own faith. Did I have that kind of faith in God to trust in His plan no matter my circumstances? Did I trust that God would bring justice in His own way and in His own time? Did I live like Jesus to the point that I could care that much about the wellbeing of those that had caused me so much pain? I wasn’t so sure.

The last person was a guy named Cody. Cody was a brilliant musician, videographer, and child of God. I was never really close to Cody, although I did spend a lot of time with his family at church over the years. Cody was the worship leader at church for years, and he was amazing at it. About a year ago, Cody was diagnosed with throat cancer and had to have surgery that left him without the ability to speak. It was heartbreaking.

Cody began to send out text messages to update everyone on how he was doing and what the next steps were for him. These texts were filled with bad news a lot of times, but somehow they left anyone who read them with a feeling of peace and hope. That is just who Cody was. One of the biggest gifts God had given him had just been taken away, and he was sending out text messages full of hope. He was sending the texts himself most of the time. He had found a way to continue to use his voice through text messaging to inspire people with his rock solid faith. 

I attended Cody’s funeral last Saturday, and his brother-in-law was one of the people that spoke about him. He said he asked Cody what he was hearing and learning from God after the surgery while he was still sick. Cody texted him and said, “I am your God and I have a plan.” Cody had an awe-inspiring faith unlike most others I have seen. Once again I found myself examining my own faith and asking myself if I could remain as solid as Cody if I ever found myself in a similar situation.  

So why am I telling you all of these stories? I want you to stop and think about the people that have influenced and impacted your faith the most. What was it about their faith that inspired you so much? Was it the amount of scripture they had memorized? Was it the number of times they attended church each week or month? Was it how often they read their Bible? I would be willing to bet it wasn’t any of those things. If I had to guess, I would say it probably had more to do with how they loved like Jesus and/or how much they trusted God. 

The truth of the matter is this, in the end, people rarely remember how much scripture you memorized, how many times you attended church, how many times a week you read your Bible, or anything else on your “checklist”. People remember how you loved. People remember how you treated them and others. You are much more impactful when you live and love like Jesus, trusting God and caring for others. 

I am not saying that reading and memorizing scripture are not important. There is no way to know how to live and love like Jesus if you don’t read your Bible. Spending time in God’s word is how we build our relationship with Him and where we learn to trust Him. What I am saying is when you live and love like Jesus, you have the potential to reach more people than you could possibly imagine. 

Jesus created a ripple effect over 2,000 years ago that is still going today. The three people that have impacted my faith the most are people I was not close to, but they created a ripple effect that has changed my life in amazing ways. None of them did this by following a set of rules or checking all the “good” things off a list. They did this by having a relationship with Jesus and living a life that reflected that relationship. I pray I can do the same for someone someday.