Episode 19 - The Butterfly Effect
Episode 19 - The Butterfly Effect
Before I begin I want to invite you to join my Seasons of Joy Community Facebook Group. In there I offer teaching and coaching. It is a place for women of faith to support each other in the different seasons of life. Tomorrow I will be going live at 11 a.m. MDT. We will be focusing on this month’s topic of Care & Connection. There is a link in the show notes.
When I began entering into my midseason of life, I remember feeling a little bit lost. I remember wondering what my purpose was. I had raised 5 children and had mostly been a stay at home mom. My role was changing and I believed that I didn’t have a purpose anymore and that I needed to find it.
This point in my life became an awakening for me in many ways including understanding my purpose in this life.
I have come to see the truth that I am not the victim of my life’s circumstances. Understanding this has allowed me to see things more as they really are and has helped me to live more intentionally.
Living with intention is a choice we make every single day. Making this choice helps us to step into our divine identity – Becoming a creator and partner with God.
Assisting Him in His work. Loving and caring for our neighbors and by bringing people to Christ.
As I was entering into this midseason of life, I was stuck on WHAT my purpose was.
I had been a dancer, a grocery store checker, a sandwich maker, a student, a bookkeeper, a janitor, a children’s music director, a PTA president, a secretary, a real estate agent, a member of my church, a runner, a hiker, a biker, a friend, a daughter, an aunt, a sister, a wife, and a mother.
But what I have come to understand is that my purpose wasn’t about my roles.
A life purpose isn’t about WHAT I am doing, but about WHY I am doing it.
WHAT I do may change many times over the course of my life because each season of life brings with it different experiences and opportunities.
But my WHY is behind all of those things.
My WHY is what gives me direction.
It gives me the desire to move forward.
It is the fuel for what I do.
My beliefs create the emotions that fuel what I do which in turn help me become who I am meant to become and allow me to show up in the world as who I want to be.
In my very first podcast episode I talk a lot about my WHY behind this podcast.
And a big part of my why is to put good into the world and to help bring people to Christ.
We have all been given unique spiritual gifts that help us in our purpose and to be God’s hands here on earth.
As Brooke Snow says, “Knowing your purpose brings color to your world, it brings focus, and intention. You know why you are here, in this situation, with these people, and how to contribute.
Each one of us is impacting the world in some way through our experiences in life.
We live in a time when the opportunity to influence the world has never been greater.
How do we want to leave the world when we leave it?
Do we just want to take from what others have left us or do we want to leave the world a better place?
There are so many ways to contribute in this world and they are as unique as we are.
I believe that a big part of caring and connecting with ourselves is getting a little perspective in order to discover our WHY.
This includes, what author Andy Andrews calls, living a life of permanent purpose from his book called The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters..
I want to cover some of the ideas he touches on.
In the beginning of his book he poses a few questions:
How significant is my life?
Do I make a difference?
When I move….when I act….when i do something…does the universe notice?
Do I really matter?
The title of this book is based on the idea of the butterfly effect.
In 1963, Edward Lorenz presented a hypothesis to the New York Academy of Science. His theory was that when a butterfly would flap its wings the molecules of air would be set in motion and that in turn would move more molecules of air and so on and so on – eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.
Lorenz was laughed at and his hypothesis was considered preposterous and ridiculous but at the same time fascinating. It would become a myth and a legend.
However, 30 years later some physics professors from around the world actually came to the conclusion that the butterfly effect was authentic, accurate, and viable.
The butterfly effect attained the status of a “law” known as The Law of Sensitive Dependence Upon Initial Conditions.
Science has shown the butterfly effect to be a force that encompasses more than just the movement of butterfly wings but includes people.
One of the stories the author shares is of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a 34-year-old school teacher. In 1863 Joshua was a Colonel in the Union Army fighting at Gettysburg. He was in a fight for his light and made a choice that July day that affects us all to this day. Chamberlain chose to not back down against all odds. He chose to move– one final charge with his group of 80 battered men up against an enemy 5 times their size. This one move changed the war. Chamberlain captured over 400 soldiers of the enemy that day.
Historians have determined that if Chamberlain hadn’t directed the final charge of the depleted union forces that the rebels would have won at Gettysburg. And they also believe that if the rebels would have won at Gettysburg, The South would have won the war…and the war would have been over by the end of the summer leaving North America divided into 9 to 13 fragmented colonies. There would have been no United States. A country that has made a profound impact on the world for the better.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain is a human example of the butterfly effect.
His influence touches our lives today.
You are all no less of an example of the butterfly effect than Chamberlain was.
Looking backwards at this story doesn’t just begin with Chamberlain.
How far back would we really have to go to determine whose actions really made the biggest impact?
The author points out that it is the same going forward. How far forward would you need to go in your life to show the difference you make?
Forever.
The truth is you matter.
You make a difference in the world.
Now and in the future, people will be influenced by you.
Their lives will be shaped and shifted by the moves you make and the actions you take.
Andy Andrews ends with this. I will quote him because he says it so well:
Quote:
“You have been created as one of a kind.
On planet Earth, there has never been one like you…and there never will be again.
Your Spirit, your thoughts, your feelings, your ability to reason and act all exist in no one else.
The rarities that make you special are no mere accident or quirk of fate.
You have been created in order that you might make a difference. You have within you the power to change the world.
Know that your actions cannot be hoarded, saved for later, or used selectively.
By your hand, millions-billions-of lives will be altered, caught upon in a chain of events by you this day.
The very beating of your heart has meaning and purpose. Your actions have value far greater than silver and gold.
Your life….And what you do with it today….Matters forever.”
How would your life be different if you truly believed that you matter?
What have you been created for?
How might you make a difference?
You have the power to change the world…..your life…
You matter.
I want to end this episode with mentioning the new nationwide three-digit mental health crisis hotline that just went live last week. 988 - It is designed to be easy to remember and use as 911, but instead of a dispatcher sending police, firefighters or paramedics, 988 will connect callers with trained mental health counselors. This is amazing and let’s share it with everyone so we can help make a difference in the world.
Next week, I will be sharing with you 3 steps that will help you in your life purpose discovery.
To schedule a free Discovery Call, join my Seasons of Joy Facebook Group, and register for my upcoming An Awakening Retreat go to Seasons Coaching.
