{"id":4664,"date":"2012-10-01T09:45:14","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T16:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=4664"},"modified":"2012-10-01T11:03:46","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T18:03:46","slug":"of-butterflies-and-termites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/10\/01\/of-butterflies-and-termites\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Butterflies and Termites"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n

Every act by every person at every moment affects change. This is both in the immediate environment and distant. Scientists and theorists of chaos theory talk of the butterfly effect. According to that, the flutter of a butterfly in Australia affects the weather in Greenland. And so it goes with everything affecting everything all the time. The amazing thing is that it works.<\/p>\n

It’s even more amazing that it works when some things happen that work against a positive effect.<\/p>\n

Here’s the scripture:\u00a0One sinner destroys much good.<\/strong>*<\/p>\n

We’ve seen it. More, we’ve caused it. One person’s selfishness empties the bank; an overbearing captain provokes a mutiny; somebody shoots the Archduke of Austria and begins World War I.<\/p>\n

No small butterfly flutterings, these.<\/p>\n

And that’s not to mention the more obvious, like the effects of termites and other realities often invisible.<\/p>\n

Our physical and environmental sciences attest to the connectivity of all things, but won’t say much about the moral sphere, that being out of their realm. Our experience and history attest, however, that these different\u00a0dimensions\u00a0work in the same way. The difference is that outside of the human realm there is no rebellion, no action independently devised, no going against.<\/p>\n

Untrue in the moral sphere in which we live. Here in the realm of intelligent thought and free will we’re faced with moral decisions on a daily and momentary basis. And there’s hardly need to remind that a great percentage of the time the wrong choice is made.<\/p>\n

And when it happens, much good is destroyed.<\/p>\n

The miracle is that everything<\/em> is not destroyed. There seems to be a higher order . . . something we take for granted. We’ll call it \u201cgrace,\u201d not very scientific, and too tame a term for such overarching effect. Somehow, in the midst of the fact that one sinner destroys much good, and there are multiplied millions of such being committed every moment, thus destroying all that much more good, the miracle is that we somehow go on.<\/p>\n

For the while.<\/p>\n

It’s a grace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

*Ecclesiastes\u00a09:18b<\/p>\n

Next: Occupational Hazards<\/em>. Coming Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the connectivity of all things, it’s a wonder that the more corrosive elements among us haven’t conquered. Still, a little evil can generate much harm . . . but for grace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4664"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4739,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4664\/revisions\/4739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}