The Power of Multiplication

I was watching Mythbusters on Discovery channel with my kids last night. One of the myths they were trying to bust is the myth that a normal sheet of paper cannot be folded more than 7 times -- after that it gets too thick. The reason is that after seven folds there are 128 layers of paper.

I decided to figure out how thick 30 folds of paper would be. The answer? 1,073,741,824 layers of paper after 30 folds. The number is counterintuitive. However, if one does the math it is clear this is how many layers of paper that result after 30 folds.

This reminded me of the power of multiplication and why it is more important in the Kingdom to pour one's life into a few who will in turn pour their life into another -- and so on, and so on. Think about it. If I could lead one person to faith in 2008 and disciple him to the point where he could do the same a year later, after 30 years of everyone in the chain doing this there would be 1,073,741,824 disciples of Jesus.

Now I clearly recognize that people cannot be pushed through any kind of process in such a nice and neat manner, and I know that the compounding power of multiplication can easily breakdown when one is dealing with people. Nevertheless, the point stands that over the long haul it is more effective for the work of the Kingdom to give one's life to a few and train them to do the same with others.

This is part of the reason, IMHO, that Jesus gave his best time to the 12 disciples.