When the average citizen of Jerusalem walked by Jesus and the two criminals hanging beside Him on crosses it was nothing unusual. Crucifixions were a normal occurrence at that time in history. No one seeing the crucifixion could ever imagine the salvation of all humanity was hanging on display before their eyes.
When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany someone passing by would simply think another priest had something to say about some obscure point of theology.
When Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus and sit in the "colored section” during the Montgomery Bus Boycott those on the bus who occupied places of social privilege thought she was rude. They were unaware that her act of defiance would provide momentum to the civil rights movement in America.
When the unidentified young man who stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square in Beijing during the protests of 1989 he displayed courage in a nation where courage could become a death sentence. The image of his act of resistance was smuggled out of China and went worldwide becoming one of the most iconic images of our time.
While Jesus on the Cross was, far and away, the most significant of these examples, the others speak to us about the impact of courageous lives and the corresponding acts of obedience they committed to something better and higher. These acts set in motion repercussions that would impact the global community.
Each life will have similar moments. While none of us are the Savior of the world, each of us has the potential to be the next Martin Luther, Rosa Parks, or the unidentified young man in Tiananmen Square who would become known in history as the Tank Man. These individual acts of obedience would release ripple effects that were unknown at the time. When we act in response to our violated conscious or an ethic of God’s Kingdom we never know where that ripple of obedience will travel.
Today, you have something significant waiting to happen as a result of your obedience. It may not be as dramatic as the examples I cited, but it might have the potential to change a single life or reveal the God-ordained destiny of a family. You and I are only responsible to drop the rock of our obedience into the pond. Where that ripple goes only God knows. You are a person of Kingdom significance. Walk in that significance and God will magnify the effect of your obedience to reach out and touch people and places you cannot yet see or imagine.
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