Great Consequences (10/17/2026)

This week, I was out with a friend for lunch who asked if I had a bit more time to spend with her and accompany her on an errand to the jewelry store. I said, “Sure,” without hesitation. I was happy to spend additional time together but also to help my friend. And while we were in the store, a man arrived with a live house plant in a box for the woman who was helping us with the purchase. Then the woman explained that her friend needed to bring all the plants inside this week because of the freeze warning for the weekend. 

I hadn’t known about the prediction; in fact, I was totally clueless. I was planning to bring my plants inside during the final week of October. It hit me as we were talking in the store. If I hadn’t chosen to spend more time with my friend and help her out with a necessary errand, I may have had a porch full of frozen plants by Sunday.

That’s when I remembered the saying, “What goes around, comes around.” The first time I ever heard that expression was in the movie Karate Kid in 1984. But once it was in my universe, it kept coming up. But not always the way I expected. Its premise is that there are consequences to our actions. We tend to put a negative connotation on it, but I’ve learned that it occurs even more often with a positive consequence. That was my “consequence” for running an errand with my friend. If I hadn’t done that, I never would have known about the warning and the houseplants on my porch would have died.

Being a word nerd, I know the etymology of the word “consequence.” It comes from the Latin word consequentia and it literally translates to follow after. We can limit its meaning and application to the negative domain of life as the result of bad or unloving behavior. But I have found how much joy it brings me when I realize a goodness in my life that flowed from loving behavior.

Yesterday as I brought in my plants from the porch and found a home for each of them, I remembered where I got them. Most of them were gifts from someone else for favors or because they wanted to do something for me because they love me. And I thought of the expression again. I’m grateful for the “consequences” of friendship and favors.

As we go forward on our journeys of faith, hope and love, may we recognize the consequences of behaviors we should set down and prayerfully do so. But may we also recognize the consequences that flow into our lives because of loving our LORD and others, they are more numerous that we have expected.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.