Decentralized impact

This morning I have been ‘tuning into’ a conversation about digital discipleship. There is a feeling from some that many individual Christians are ‘plugging away’ at this in the background whilst it is the bigger outfits which receive the limelight. Whilst this may indeed be true, I am left wondering how much it matters. Two illustrations of this come to mind.

Millions of internet users today will plug into the services of the mighty Google. Few will think what is going on ‘under the bonnet’ as they perform their searches. And yet, the truth is that Google is not powered by some vast supercomputer the size of  a small city, but by upwards of one million individual servers no bigger than the one you may be using just now. The genius lies not in the size of the computers, but the way they link together.

Regular readers of this blog will know my fascination with Michel Chevreul and his insights on the combination of pure colours to make an intense polychromatic whole. Bravia’s stunning paint advert has featured on here before for that very reason. Below is a lesser known Bravia commercial, where the Great Pyramid at Giza is seen covered by ordinary, tiny reels of cotton – to dramatic effect.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyGq4keRlrA&w=560&h=349]

Today I pay tribute to the thousands of Christian bloggers and tweeters out there who are contributing to the polychromatic presence of Christ online. I draw your attention to Peter’s description of our duty to “faithfully minister the Grace of God in its various forms” (1 Peter 4 v.10) the words in italics are just one word in the Greek, meaning “rainbow coloured”.

Time to get painting…