Definition:
noun
• in Chemistry. a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself
being affected.
• something that causes activity between two or more persons or forces without itself being
affected.
• a person or thing that precipitates an event or change:
example:
His imprisonment by the government served as the catalyst that helped transform
social unrest into revolution.
• a person whose talk, enthusiasm, or energy causes others to be more friendly,
enthusiastic, or energetic.
A little research:
Catalysts according to chemistry
“Almost everything in your daily life depends on catalysts: cars, Post-It notes, laundry detergent, beer. All the parts of your sandwich—bread, cheddar cheese, roast turkey. Catalysts break down paper pulp to produce the smooth paper in your magazine. They clean your contact lenses every night. They turn milk into yogurt and petroleum into plastic milk jugs, CDs and bicycle helmets.”
“What is catalysis?
Catalysts speed up a chemical reaction by lowering the amount of energy you need to get one going. Catalysis is the backbone of many industrial processes, which use chemical reactions to turn raw materials into useful products. Catalysts are integral in making plastics and many other manufactured items.
Even the human body runs on catalysts. Many proteins in your body are actually catalysts called enzymes, which do everything from creating signals that move your limbs to helping digest your food. They are truly a fundamental part of life.”
https://www.anl.gov/article/7-things-you-may-not-know-about-catalysis
“A catalytic converter uses a chamber called a catalyst to change the harmful compounds from an engine’s emissions into safe gases, like steam. It works to split up the unsafe molecules in the gases that a car produces before they get released into the air.
The catalytic converter is located on the underside of a vehicle and looks like a large metal box. There are two pipes coming out of it. The convertor utilizes these two pipes and the catalyst during the process of making the gases safe to be expelled.
Gases are brought in from the “input” pipe connected to the engine of a vehicle. These are blown over the catalyst, which causes a chemical reaction that breaks apart the pollutants. The less-harmful gases now travel through the second pipe, or the “output,” that is connected to a car’s tailpipe.”
https://www.uti.edu/blog/automotive/catalytic-converter
“A catalyst is something that helps chemical processes happen. The most common catalyst is heat, but sometimes a catalyst is a substance that facilitates the process without undergoing any transformation itself.
Silver is a common catalyst for many manufacturing processes, often producing items that you use every day.”
https://www.silverinstitute.org/silver-catalysts/
Catalyst video
https://youtu.be/i_39q6N1sAs
End of a little research
Thank God for the “unsung” catalysts. The extras, the backstage crew, the parents, the siblings, the spouses, the laborers, the coaches, the employees, everybody behind someone’s or something’s success. Are we all catalysts? Perhaps, there is this gravitational force that exists that suggests that a force exists between any two objects or masses separated by some distance. Now, realistically, this force is infinitesimal, super, super small, but still, it is a force. Haven’t you noticed the difference between an empty room and a crowded room? Don’t you feel a bit warmer in a crowded room than in an empty room?
Now, I am about to make a far reach. Yesterday, on the way home, I noticed the sun rays, and I realized that I would not have been able to see the rays so clearly if it had not been for the clouds, actually the gray clouds. Here is the reach, the gray clouds seemed to be catalysts for making the sun rays visible. I look at the sky all of the time, but why did I have this revelation at this moment? The same rays radiate from the sun everyday. Well, it made a whole lot of things I have been pondering in the times we live in a bit more understandable and even more bearable. In order for the light, His light, to shine in each of us, we need catalysts, clouds, if you will. We need someone, something, or some happening to cause our light rays or our shining light to be visible.
Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good
deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Lately, I have been feeling like a catalyst. And actually I didn’t know how to feel about it at first. But now, well now, what a privilege it is to be a catalyst for others and how humbling it is to accept this position. This world fools people into thinking that they have to do something to make their light visible. We don’t have to make it shine. The Bible tells us to let it shine. So, as we follow Christ in our everyday life, my prayer is that our light shines or His light shines in us in every direction no matter what difficulty, conflict, hurdle, or even pleasantry we are faced with.
As for being a catalyst, let me focus on this definition: a person or thing that precipitates an event or change. God sent us a ‘catalyst,’ His
one and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The change that both His eternal and earthly life precipitated still propagates from His very birth. God sent Jesus to do for us what we, mankind, could not do for ourselves - to save us from our sins by being the once for all sacrifice (Matthew 1:21; Romans 6:10; Hebrews 10:10).
So, now it’s our charge to accept, to be a catalyst for others to spread the good news of God’s love for us all. As catalysts, we don’t seek any glory for ourselves. No, it is His glory that we want to shine through, because “... God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”