The Ripples

Some tragedy has struck my family recently. Because of the personal nature of it all, I’m not going to get into the details here. But I do have some thoughts I need to share…

When the show “Joan of Arcadia” (a brilliant and poignant reflection on practical Christian theology) was on the air, it had a consistant theme of considering the “ripples” of every action. Similarly to a stone thrown into a still pond, every action has a series of reactions–some being further away and fainter than others, but nonetheless disturbing the stillness of the pond.

Here in California we are familiar with this notion in a very real way. When an earthquake hits, those who are closest to the epicenter of the earthquake will feel it the strongest. The shaking will be more jarring, it may last longer, and there is a higher occurrence of felt aftershocks. The further away you are from the epicenter, the less jarring the shaking will be. Nevertheless, when an earthquake hits the Southland (a relatively strong one, at least), it is felt pretty much wherever you are. How much it damage it does is usually dictated by one’s relative location to the epicenter.

So it is with our lives. Sometimes there are terrible, jarring tremors in our lives. The epicenter is so close that damage is unavoidable. Sometimes the damage is irrepairable.  There are injuries that can never fully heal.

Other times there is a tremor that is a bit removed, that we know has certainly caused a great deal of damage in someone else’s location. For us, perhaps, it was just a bit of shaking. A dish or two might have broken. No immediate damage that anyone can see. And yet it is still very frightening.  And with every earthquake, no matter how far away, there is always the fear that comes with it: where will it happen next? Will it be closer next time?

The ripples of our actions are farther reaching than we realize. Each choice has the potential to move its underground fingers through the landscape of countless lives.  I wonder if people who think that nobody really cares recognize what these ripples, what these living earthquakes, can really do.