Recently I was perusing the shelf at the office and “found” Glenn Packiam’s Butterfly In Brazil. I bought it a few years ago and, since I’m sure I was in the middle of seven other books at the time, I didn’t read it right away. Subsequently it was relegated to gather dust and wait. Sorry, Glenn. Here’s the thing: maybe that was no accident.
(buy the book HERE)
When I bought this book when it came out in 2007 I think I would have missed some of the most basic truths that it retells and would have missed some of the revelation that, as I read it now, is crystal clear to me. Thanks, Glenn, for writing
If you’re looking for a great, quick read, this is it. It’ll only take you a week’s worth of devotions (or trips to the, ahem, porcelain fixtured reading room). Read it....at least start....then let’s discuss!
If you haven’t read it yet (or started), you might want to stop reading this blog now...or maybe it’ll pique your interest.
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As a premise for writing, I love the “Butterfly/Chaos Theory” concept. Several years ago, when I learned of several of the Chaos theories, I read anything I could find on the subject because I immediately had a spiritual perspective of what these theories could mean to the Christian. Packiam does a great job of building on these very thoughts: we cannot fathom the impact of the tiniest of our actions now in the light of eternity.
I resonate very deeply with many of Packiam’s personal explorations of dreams, goals and visions and the motives behind them. When we’re brought up on a steady diet of “God has such great plans for you” and “The Lord is going to use you in mighty ways” we develop this preconception of what those “great plans” and “mighty ways” will be. As a result, as we move through life and we don’t see those specific plans or ways, we, as Packiam puts it, “sort of TIVO’d our lives without really intending to--just hit ‘pause’ and put everything on hold’.” This TIVO mentality of pausing when we want to go do something else, then fast-fowarding to the “good parts” means that we’re effectively doing NOTHING while we wait for the big things to happen TO us.
“I know that God wants to use me to accomplish great things. So I’m going to store up all the greatness that’s building in me right now, and then one day I’ll find myself in an arena before thousands and thousands of people, and then--BAM--I’ll release all that greatness on everyone.” (pg 9)
Packiam goes on, in the next chapters, to develop the thought that if we would instead believe that EVERY moment is a designed opportunity for greatness in the upside-down Kingdom of God and these moments can have far reaching impact “more than all we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20, NIV).
Any thoughts? Any quotes from the first several chapters that stuck out?
