When we were living in Shreveport, we often went down on Friday night to visit Dan and Ruby who lived on their farm near Florien, Louisiana. As Blake grew up, he would sometimes invite a friend to go with him on our visit. This made the time go faster for him and also gave him the opportunity to acquaint his friends from the city with life on the farm.
On one of these trips, he invited his friend Justin to go with him. One of the things that they enjoyed doing was bird hunting with their BB guns. Since they were handling these responsibly, we decided to let them use our single-shot 22 with some “rat shot/shell shot†bullets. These are bullets loaded with small pellets that spread out upon being fired and do not travel very far. They especially enjoyed this.
While all was going well, we stepped inside the house and had not been there very long when the phone rang. It was a call from one of Dan and Ruby’s neighbors, Autrey Marr, who lived about a half-mile away across a field. Autrey was pretty excited. He said that bullets were hitting trees all around their house, and he was wondering if anyone at Dan’s was shooting a rifle. Dan explained that the only shooting going on was being done by Blake and Justin and . . . With that we went running out of the house and discovered the source of the shooting. Blake and Justin had been having such a good time with the single-shot-22 that they decided to get Dan’s 22-automatic out of the closet and begin firing it. It was not loaded with shell-shot but with long- rifle shells that carried a mile or so. They had been missing birds, but they were scoring direct hits on all of the trees around Autrey Marr’s house a half-mile away. Focused in on the birds in the trees around the house, they were blissfully unaware of the long-range effects of the shots they were firing.
That’s often the way we are with the words and deeds that we launch into our world. Our vision is limited to the time and place where we launch them, and we are often unaware of their long-range implications.
Sometimes these words and deeds cause damage beyond our knowing. A harsh word or an unkind deed lands in a sensitive spot in someone’s soul. We hurt and wound people. They often bear the scars of these wounds for the rest of their lives.
On the other hand, sometimes our words and deeds have a redemptive effect in ways that we never know. An act of kindness, an encouraging word, or an act of compassion can bring healing and help in the lives of persons that we never suspect.
Stephen died the first martyr’s death in the history of Christianity. What he never knew was that there was a young man named Saul/Paul who witnessed his heroic death and was never to get that witness out of his mind. Stephen’s words and deeds had a long-range impact that forever shaped our world. So do yours!
