THE BREAD BASKET

THE DOCTRINE OF DOMINOES

Tucked away in the ancient biblical writings there is a one-verse miracle recorded for us in 11 Kings 13:21 (NIV):

Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.

After Elisha had died, bands of roving Moabites invaded the land, murdering and plundering by surprise. Apparently neighbors were carrying the corpse of a man to his grave when, in the distance, they spotted the trespassing Moabites. What to do? Fearing they might fall prey to the warring intruders, they quickly went to "Plan B" and placed the corpse in someone else's tomb--which happened to be Elisha's. The dead man, upon touching Elisha's bones, felt life suddenly coming again into his body. He stood up, stretched, rubbed his eyes, and then ran home again to be with his family and friends!

Think about it. How do you affect other peoples' lives whom you touch day by day? Do you bring new life to a relationship gone sour? Do you bring fresh hope to the discouraged, the downtrodden? Do you bring a renaissance of integrity and enthusiasm to your workplace? Do you bring a resurgence of faith to prodigals in the church?

There's a biblical principle which says: No member of the Body of Christ can live in isolation; no person's actions stop with himself or herself; what we say and what we do-whether for good or for evil-affects the lives of other people, just as one domino affects the next domino, and that domino affects the next one. Paul declares: "For none of us can live alone by himself, and none of us can die alone by himself" (Romans 14:7/ Williams). An unknown author has written these lines:

The slightest breeze that ever blew
Some slender grass has wavered;
The smallest life I ever knew
Some other life has flavored.
We cannot live our lives alone
For other lives we touch,
Are either strengthened by our own
Or weakened just as much.

--Paul W. Brubaker
January/February 1992

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