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How to Change the World
As young, Christian adults we sometimes feel the burden of responsibility to change the world for Christ. This burden is valid, but sometimes going about bringing Christ's kingdom is simpler than being president or going to China as a missionary. Sometimes changing the world comes from the small things.
Naps in Action
A lot of times I write stuff that I think is beautiful and inspiring. I hijack an abstract idea like "faith in action" and then talk a lot about how Jesus wanted us to do things. I use bouncy verbs like shout and jump and reach. I get myself very hyped up about this idea of faith being something that we do. I write about it and talk about it and am very convinced that Jesus wants me to be a mover, a doer, a helper.
Then I go take a nap.
In reality, talking about faith is much easier than doing it. I think this is because sometimes the task of doing faith, of loving the way Jesus wants me to, seems very daunting. When faced with the reality of all the despair in the world, it seems nearly impossible for Christians to be a light that truly overcomes darkness.
I experienced an example of this challenge when I went to Peru this past summer. While there, I spent some time with very poor people. They lived in shacks made of corrugated tin and scraps of wood. They cooked over open fires and did not have running water. Their children did not know what it was like to have dental care or hair without lice or Nintendo. They were sick but could not afford a visit to the doctor. They had no way of ever overcoming their poverty.
I came back from Peru feeling overwhelmed. I couldn't solve their problems. I couldn't help all of those people become rich. All I could do was see how they lived and then come back to my giant house with carpet and hot, running water and mope around, drowning in my pampered American guilt.
To even begin to change the world seemed like too overwhelming of a task. Not worth attempting.
But this is where I think I got it wrong. Oftentimes God calls us to change the world in small ways, in our miniscule roles in day-to-day life. Sometimes changing the world for the sake of Christ is much simpler than we think.
Writing Well and Washing Dishes
As I alluded to earlier, I like to pretend that I am a writer. This means that I can get away with being moody as long as I tell people that I am being introspective and thinking about my next writing project. It also means that I can go spend the day watching people at a coffee shop and call it "work" as long as I have my laptop open.
Part of my job is to write articles for all of you TrueU readers. I write about community or dating or pride or faith. I write about what is going on in my life and how I always ignore what God is trying to teach me, and how He is somehow able to get things through my thick skull in spite of me.
My articles are published online, so anyone in the whole entire world is able to read them. Six billion people have access to my musings, to my bits of wisdom. Mainly my mom reads them. Sometimes she prints them and sends them to my grandparents who don't yet understand the Interwebs.
Because my articles get published on the Internet, sometimes I think that this is the way God has called me to be a world changer. My words have the potential to reach lots of people, and if I say something useful, it might help people better apply a Christian worldview to the way they think and live. The power of my cleverly organized words will break through to the inmost parts of people's souls and change their lives forever.
These life-changing moments could happen, I guess. But probably not. I do think God wants me to write and share what He is teaching me. But I don't necessarily think it's the only way He wants me to change the world or to share His gospel.
A lot of the time, He probably wants me to wash my roommate's dishes or to be patient with my brother. I think He wants me to learn His Word and to get to know Him so well that He is my favorite thing to talk about when I'm around others. He wants me to feel compassion for the homeless people downtown, and I think Jesus wants me to actually apply the words I write to my own life.
Being a World Changer
I work with college students at the Focus on the Family Institute. These students come to Colorado to take classes about the Christian worldview and family and marriage. They come to learn how to apply their faith to every area of life, to be good parents, to be good spouses, to be good citizens. They come to our program, and we welcome them with excitement.
We sit them down and give them a pep talk about how they are the best and the brightest. We tell them that our program is life-changing and powerful. We tell them that God will raise up a generation of leaders from among them — leaders who will be world changers.
This pep talk makes many of them want to cry and go home immediately.
The reason, I think, is that it is overwhelming to hear that you have to change the world. You are just you — not Superwoman or He-Man. You don't know how to make the world a better place or how to implement policy that will make everyone happy. You are not sure that you can be a good husband or raise respectful children. You don't even know how to cook rice without burning it. How on earth can you be expected to change the world?
This is why, after the pep talk, we tell our students that throughout the semester God will show them what this world changer-ness looks like for each of them. We start with the great commandments: to love God and love each other. This, we tell them, is what we've been asked to do. This is how we will change the world.
If we get up each day and try our best to fulfill these commandments as Jesus asked us to, then we will be good parents, good citizens, good followers of the Way. Some of us will become politicians, some of us will become mothers. All of us will be fulfilling the commands of Jesus.
Get Up and Go
Each of us has been called to bring glory to our Maker. God wants us to interact with our classmates in ways that are honoring to Him. He wants us to love our friends and families and boyfriends or girlfriends sacrificially. He wants us to teach our future children that Jesus bore the burden of our sin, and He wants us to walk as Jesus walked.
My being a world changer may very well include writing articles for strangers to read. Some of you will be involved in politics or run companies or teach your children the story of Adam and Eve. The Bible says that each of us are different parts of the body, and that God has arranged all of us as He wants us to be (1 Corinthians 12:18). God wants us to be world changers in different ways. Some of us might be in the spotlight more than others, but that doesn't make the seemingly small things any less significant.
C O F F E E S H O PBut once again, being a world changer requires doing something. Instead of talking about faith, we must get up and go. It's in the doing that God is glorified. The world will be changed when it sees followers of Jesus loving and sharing truth through the way they live.
Denise Morris is an Editor for TrueU.org and authors content for the Women's Hall and Student Lounge. Denise earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and Spanish from the University of St. Thomas. She has written and edited for some small and some large publications; spent time in Spain learning how to make tapas; cheers for Minnesota sports teams (especially the Timberwolves); likes to debate; and enjoys spending time with friends and/or enemies.
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