And David said to God, “Was it not I who gave command to number the people? It is I who have sinned and done great evil. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father’s house. But do not let the plague be on your people.” -1 Chronicles 21:17 Sometimes we do asinine things and others take the blame for it. We do things where the implications of our actions stretch far beyond our own self and pervade the lives of the people living around us, oftentimes leading to devastating consequences. This is the butterfly effect, in which your action sets into motion a chain of unintended reactions that alter both your present and future. King David orders a census in this story. But the census in itself is not the problem: the intention he has for conducting this census is what brings about the devastation. You see, God had told David not to conduct a census. Unfortunately, David was tempted away from God’s instruction and did what he’d wanted: basically spit on God and show irreverence to the reason he was even king in the first place. The result: punishment. David was given three options for paying the penalty, and he chose, “I want the punishment to be supernatural.” So the kingdom came to be plagued by pestilence. It’s not enough for us to simply talk about the butterfly effect, because situations and things that “spill over” as a secondary or tertiary consequence is out of our control and beyond the scope of most of our decisions and actions. Simply said, we believe that “It’s not our problem.” Except, it is. Here’s the point that we can’t lose sight of: we’re responsible. We may not be able to control what other people do; heck, we may not even have anything to do with the calamity that befalls people. But we are still responsible. If you want to see your actions have a butterfly effect on others’ lives, I challenge you to act by praying over their lives. I challenge you to act by bestowing grace on them. I challenge you to take a hit and offer yourself, as the responsible party, before God. I promise you that when you do these things, there will be a chaotic immersion of new blessings from God. Be responsible: let your butterflies be the purposeful effects of God’s change.