Jack The Rippler
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” -Mother Teresa
I don’t know his name. So let’s just call him Jack . . . Jack the Rippler. At least, that’s the way I want to remember him.
He was just a gangly, wide-eyed teenager, waiting for his double-burger at an In-N-Out in San Diego, California.
Now this may sound sacrilegious to some of you, but I never liked hamburgers!! If I went to a McDonald’s or Jollibee, I’d get the spaghetti, fillet-o-fish or something other than a burger. So what was I doing at a burger joint? I had two friends who insisted and convinced me that I just HAD to have an In-N-Out burger while I was in San Diego. Well, one bite, and I was hooked! Ah, the influence of friends! Burger, where have you been all my life?
So here I was again, the following day, eating my second burger of 2015 (!). That’s when I saw Jack and three of his friends seated at the table across me. There was nothing unusual about them; they were just four ordinary, teenage boys out for an afternoon snack. It was what they did that was extraordinary.
Instead of wolfing down their burger and fries, Jack and his friends were bowing their heads in prayer. And it wasn’t a token prayer. It was a heartfelt, quiet conversation of four sons who knew their Heavenly Father.
They didn’t call attention to themselves. They were just minding their own business. They didn’t even notice the nosey lady across them who was silently watching.
Me: “Joey, wow, look they’re praying!”
Joey: (gobble, munch, munch)
Me: “Joey! They’re still praying!!!”
Joey: (gobble, munch, munch)
Me: “Joey! One of them has a Bible. Their heads are still bowed down!”
I suddenly realized that I was watching Christianity in action: a small group doing small group, sharing lives, and building their faith. A holy moment at a burger joint.
I was so inspired and blessed by the quiet, polite, yet faith-filled behavior of these young men who looked like they were just 14 or 15 years old. God, thank you for young people like these! Before leaving, I took a detour and headed towards their table.
Their faces turned my way, a little puzzled.
“Hi!—in my best American accent—You don’t know me. I’m just traveling here. But I want you all to know, that you have blessed me. Just seeing the way you pray, has made my day.” (Then there were big smiles all around : ) )
Later in the car, as we headed toward the freeway, I told Joey, “Honey, let’s pray. It’s traffic anyway . . .”
Thank you, Jack. Thank you for your rippling effect of prayer that caused Joey and I to pray in the van. Thank you for your quiet faith and the influence that you have on your friends, and their influence to others. May you continue to ripple all the days of your life, and may I be a “rippler” for good, wherever I go too.
The secret my Father told me through Jack: BE A RIPPLER!
It doesn’t take much to influence a life. Whether for a burger, or for eternity!
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. 1 Timothy 4:12 (ESV)
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