Wisdom to evoke the positive

James 3:17-18 (NLT)

17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 18 And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.

Wisdom is God’s gift to men. Of all the things King Solomon could ask for; he asked for wisdom and God gave wisdom to him as a gift. True wisdom from God is pure. It is peaceful, gentle, considerate, merciful and compassion. There is no favoritism found in God’s wisdom and the results are always sincere. A Peacemakers use God’s wisdom to instill peace in others. Peacemakers turn a hostile environment into a peaceful environment, which those who are Peacekeepers maintain peace in a hostile environment through whatever means necessary. The seeds planted by Peacekeepers reap a harvest of peaceful righteousness.

On an ordinary winter day in 1961, an MIT meteorologist named Edward Lorenz ran some routine experiments and found some unusual results. Lorenz discovered that seemingly tiny and insignificant changes in his data could produce huge differences in the final result. At first, Lorenz and other scientists in the field of chaos theory called this "the sensitive dependence on initial data." Fortunately, later on Lorenz used a simpler term—"the butterfly effect." In 1972, Lorenz presented a scientific paper entitled "Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set off a Tornado in Texas?" According to Lorenz's theory, the butterfly's wing-flapping doesn't actually cause a tornado, but it can start a chain reaction leading to giant changes in world-wide weather patterns. In others words, even tiny, insignificant movements or actions can produce huge changes that affect millions of people.

The Bible often describes a similar "butterfly effect" for the spiritual life. According to Jesus, the spiritual butterfly effect occurs when we do small things—making a meal, visiting the sick, befriending the lonely, opening our home to a guest, praying with a friend—for "insignificant" people, which makes a huge difference in God's eyes. But according to Jesus, there's also a reverse butterfly effect: consistently failing to display small acts of kindness (i.e. living an unkind lifestyle) has a profound loss of opportunity in the spiritual realm. [Kenneth Chang, "Edward N. Lorenz, a Meteorologist and a Father of Chaos Theory, dies at 90," NewYorkTimes.com (4-17-08)]

Apply God’s wisdom to your actions for a simple right action may have a significant and profound positive effect on another, while a negative action may have a lasting detrimental effect. We want to pass along positive effects that others can pass along too.