He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation (Acts 17:26).

Originally in science, events were considered deterministic. That is, if you knew enough about how a system started, you could accurately predict the outcome. However, in 1963, meterologist Edward Lorenz made an important discovery. Lorenz wrote a basic computer program to study a simplified model of the weather. Since this was a computer model, Lorenz expected that when he input the same values, he'd get exactly the same result each time he ran the program.

He was surprised to find, however, that he was getting drastically different results from what he believed to be the same values. He discovered that he was actually entering values that were slightly different from one another (by rounding numbers a few places beyond the decimal point). He had originally regarded the differences as negligible, but he determined that these small, minute differences in the initial values were the cause of the drastic changes in the final result.

As Lorenz's model was studied, science realized that even the smallest imaginable discrepancy between two sets of initial conditions would always result in a huge discrepancy "down the road." This is known as a chaotic system.

This principle is sometimes known as the "Butterfly Effect." The "Butterfly Effect" refers to the idea that a butterfly's flapping wings in Beijing can determine the weather in Texas next year. If a hurricane strikes the East Coast, you can always follow that storm system back to a very small low-pressure system in the Atlantic. And if you follow that low-pressure system back in time, perhaps it could've started out as a small swirl of air. Could a butterfly have initiated that swirl?

According to science, in the physical realm, small, unnoticeable events often have a MAJOR impact in the complex system of which they're a part. These major changes may be far from that initial event geographically or chronologically, but eventually, the change will be magnified to a noticeable level.

The same is true of the spiritual realm. Small, unnoticed acts of obedience or disobedience can cause major changes in the Kingdom. And small acts of God can have major effects in our lives as well as in the Kingdom.

Samuel Mills and his friends, all students at Williams College, were caught in a thunderstorm in August 1806.  They sought refuge under a haystack. While waiting out the storm, they felt prompted to pray for foreign missionary interest among students. From this haystack prayer meeting came the initial impulse of a missionary movement in the United States.

Could it be that a prayer you prayed for someone this morning was the final prayer needed for a breakthrough in that person's life? Perhaps the kind word you gave today is the catalyst in the spiritual realm for a life to be totally changed by God. Who knows what little acts may have large results in the Kingdom?

-David Drees

Let God guide your steps in the small ways today, for they may be part of something big tomorrow.

© 2002 Kingdom Building Ministries.