Rich Dixon has us thinking about implications.

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Does an idea ever rattle around in your brain, and you just can’t stop thinking about it?

A couple of weeks ago, I told you about Dick Foth speaking to the Freedom Tour community. I keep hearing him say, in his calm, grandfatherly voice, “Everything that happens today has eternal consequences.”

It’s one of those things you know if you follow Jesus, but something about hearing it in that context made it especially resonant.

Related note – on the Friday before the ride, there was a knock at our door. The man had volunteered before, and wondered why he hadn’t been contacted with his assignment for this year’s ride.

Becky was honest. She’d been asked not to contact him, because he was going through a difficult cancer treatment. His response was remarkable.

“So what? I intend to serve until I die.”

I wonder… what does Jesus do with that? How does he use this man, standing at a corner, providing directions so riders don’t get lost? What’s the eternal impact of this sort of simple act of service?

I like to think I can draw a straight line between our actions and their impact. We raise funds, kids are rescued. Ideally, they come to know Jesus and grow into the strong young men and women God always intended. Nice story, but only a tiny part of what’s really happening.

Foth’s comments remind me there’s something much deeper and longer-term involved. Like the big arc of the Bible story, we can’t choose one small piece out of context just because it fits our particular bias at the time.

That guy, standing on that corner, is part of a story bigger than I can possibly understand.

The same is true, of course, of the neighbors we greet – or ignore. We think a simple “hello” isn’t a big deal.

Eternal consequences.