ACCUMULATION

A single snowflake is beautiful and eagerly anticipated at the beginning of the winter season. Even thousands are viewed with appreciation. It isn't until they begin to accumulate that the scenario begins to change. The accumulation begins to be measured in inches, then in feet, and if it continues to snow can stop almost all activities. When the season changes, the warmth begins to melt the snow and a trickle of water runs into a small creek, then a river, and eventually an ocean. If the accumulation of warm days comes too fast, the trickle becomes a stream, the creek becomes a rapids, and the river becomes a flood. The accumulation of all things have a different long term effect than a small quantity in a short amount of time. With warm weather comes opportunities to spend time in the sun, absorbing vitamin D. Stay outside too long and you'll have a sunburn. Accumulate too many sunburns and you'll have permanent skin damage or even skin cancer. Wise people understand the effect of accumulation and over their lifetime use that understanding to avoid catastrophes, and embrace positive uses of the abundance. The accumulation of knowledge is happening faster than at any time in the history of the world, challenging our educational systems. 2nd Timothy 4:3 and 4 warns however, "for the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they will have an itch to hear something new. They will turn away from hearing the truth and will turn aside to myths". Please recognize the difference between known facts and truth (see my January 2007 blog on avoiding truthiness).

A recent AP story stated that Amazon deforestation is on the rise. It noted that in 2007 4,250 square miles of rain forest was razed for agricultural use. That accounted for 2.7% of the Amazon rain forest according to the National Institute for Space Research. The need of Brazilians to raise cattle and grow corn and sugar cane is recognized but the accumulation of years of deforestation affects the entire world. Our human systems produce CO2 and need oxygen, while trees need CO2 and produce oxygen. If deforestation continues in Brazil at the current rate the accumulation of years will eliminate the largest rain forest on earth in 37 years. While tree planting programs can prevent the damage to the world environment from becoming permanent, the reality is that they are not even close to offsetting the damage. Most people listen to loud music, work where excessive noise is part of their commute or workplace, or attend celebrations with loud fireworks each year. Long or repeated exposure to sounds at or above 85 decibels can cause hearing loss. The louder the sound, the shorter the time period before hearing loss can occur. Noise induced hearing loss is a permanent hearing impairment resulting from prolonged exposure to high levels of noise. One in 10 Americans has a hearing loss that affects his or her ability to understand normal speech. Excessive noise exposure is the most common cause of hearing loss. When noise is too loud, it begins to kill cells in the inner ear. As the accumulation of exposure time to loud noise increases, more and more hair cells are destroyed. As the number of hair cells decreases, so does your hearing. There is no way to restore life to dead hair cells; the damage is permanent. These are two examples where the accumulation of daily events can lead to catastrophe.

Retirement planners recognize the time value of money. The accumulation of funds grow exponentially, depending on the interest or rate of return and the length of time. The rule of 72 says money will double when the multiplication of time and interest equals 72. $1,000 becomes $2,000 when invested at 14.4% for 5 years, or 7.2% for 10 years. The idea of interest is that those who need money will pay a charge for the use of it. If you are paying the interest, such as with credit cards, you'll have a different view than if you are earning interest, such as a savings account. Banks can pay you interest for your savings because they loan your money to others at a higher interest rate. An entire industry of mutual funds exists to accumulate the investment funds of many people and use those larger totals to purchase stocks or bonds of businesses and provide a rate of return. The larger the amount of money, the higher rate of return can be expected. The longer the time of accumulation the bigger the total. Saving $25 per week for 30 years will give you significantly more money than saving $50 per week over 15 years, assuming it is invested in something with the same rate of return. Most of us eat three meals a day, and all of us eat food. If it is good food that nourishes our body, we remain healthy and have fewer diseases. If the food that we eat is not nourishing, but just tastes good at the moment, we become sickly and have more diseases. By controlling the intake of food each day to only the nourishing kind, each year and decade has fewer diseases. These are two examples where the accumulation of daily events can lead to abundance.

The discipline I'm asking of you is to take a lengthy view of the accumulation of each thing you do each day. A great saying is "life will come out the way today went". It means that our life is an accumulation of all the days in it. Another consideration is a lengthy view of the accumulation of each thing you do NOT do each day. Our days fill up with thoughts, and those thoughts become our actions, and eventually our actions become our habits. A quarter pound hamburger won't hurt me, but if I eat that everyday for twenty two years I've consumed a ton of beef. Will eating 2000 pounds of beef improve my health? Setting aside 20 minutes per day to pray and converse with my heavenly Father doesn't sound like a long time. Do that for 30 years and you've spent over 150 days focused totally on Him. Planting a tree each month to offset what is happening in Brazil will add 120 trees in 10 years. Convince 10 people to do the same and their 1200 trees will add to your 120, but if they also convince 10 people the ten year total will be over 12,000 trees. The Bible warned us about the population turning away from truth. Understanding the wisdom of accumulation, we can make a difference where we have been placed. The same math that works for trees also works for people. Jesus said to Thomas in John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. " In Matthew 28:19 he told all the disciples "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you". A film was produced this year titled "Demographic Winter". http://www.demographicwinter.com It graphically shows that Satan understands accumulation very well. How we live makes a difference and our combined lives make a bigger difference. The various roles your life has been assigned need introspection. Will you start the accumulations of abundance and stop the accumulations of catastrophe? It's up to you.