Be The Change

Gandhi once wrote, "Be the change you want to see in the world."  As I think about that statement and consider all that it means for me, I realize how great a responsibility I have - in fact we all have - to be agents of change and transformation in culture.  Someone once said that if you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always gotten.  Too often we sit back and find fault with things around us that remain the same and continue to be the proverbial "burr in our saddle" not because they have such great and lasting power and are oblivious to change - but because we have simply failed to address their fault and offer something different.

Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that at the point where grace intersects our life we are made new.  The word he uses there is a Greek word that refers to something that has never existed before.  In other words, when we give our lives to Christ we are transformed - changed from the inside out and made into a completely new being.  That grace transformation issues itself in a new world of responsibility, for a few verses later we are called "ambassadors."  That is a powerful word.  It refers to one who goes on behalf of or represents another with all the rights and power of the one they represent.  In this case, we would go on behalf of Christ Jesus - with all the rights and power of who He is with the ability IN HIM to effect change in our world.

That brings me back to Gandhi.  If I want to live in a world filled with love and grace and goodness, then I must be the very reflection of the love, grace, and goodness that I seek.  If I want my world to embrace the Gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ, then I must be the very reflection of one who has embraced the Gospel and teachings of Jesus Christ.  I want my world to change.  I am tired of the negativism and the suffering and the brokenness that is so much a part of the people and the lives that I encounter on a daily basis.  But that change to something different, something better - to become transformed by Christ won't just happen.  I have to lead the way.  I have to be the change that I want to see.  I must reflect His heart, His love, His grace, His transforming power at work in me, so that through me He can bring those things to my world.

That is my heart's desire.  It is all that I want.  I wonder...would you join me on that journey?  Would you help me to transform our world by being the Christ-centered change that we want to see?