Ripples

Where do the wars
and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions
that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive,
because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
James 4:1-3

Reflection:
Good question Jesus asks the apostles. Where do wars come from? They don't just happen on their own. When we are unhappy with what we have, we tend to seek more. We are the originators, we fight within ourselves. We all know of the ripple effect. When we skip a stone across the water and watch the spread of ripples.

We are like this when we are unhappy with what we are given, so our unhappiness spreads within, and from there beyond to others. We not only wage war within ourselves but we fight with every one else too.I've been there, and I see the difference with God ever more present in my life.

How can we change if God doesn't interject himself in our life. How can we go from one extreme to another. Having faith is the foundation of our lives, knowing what is right and wrong and acting upon it is what God teaches us. When we know what is right we spread goodness. But on the other hand when we know what is wrong and do it anyway we cause the war that wages within to spread.

But we also forget we can change. After watching the ripples for a bit we see they stop and witness a calm upon the water, until we throw another stone to cause the water to ripple again. We as human beings can make a big difference in how those ripples spread. We can choose goodness to be part of this or continually choose to cause war and hurt to spread. It's our choice, but Jesus seeks for us to choose the good. Can we?