We all know that phrase, "The world doesn't revolve around you!" We say it when secretly we want the world to revolve around us, and someone else is getting the attention that we feel we deserve. I mean if we are really honest, isn't that the truth? We, like Satan, want the world to revolve around us? After the fall God put into action His "in case of emergency" plan. By setting the stage for Jesus to come and bleed for us. Jesus' death was about so much more than a "get out of hell" free card. It was about starting billions of inner revivals. He was planting seeds of love in our hearts that would spread into all the world. But the problem is that many of us haven't really accepted that love. And without it we cannot hope to change anything. It can be likened to how for centuries we thought that the Sun was the center of the universe. Without His love we become the center of our own universe.
In our worlds we see every individual like they are the "extras" and we the leading roles, at best we see others as the "supporting cast" on our stage. Let's be honest. We do don't we? Our every action stems from our need to be the "center" of our universe. A world unto ourselves. A lone island in the midst of an ocean. Because of this tendency, it's easy to assume that everyone thinks like we do. That everyone should agree with us, because on our planet everyone would. Duh... So at this point if you disagree, stop that! Just kidding. Seriously, though, we can say that we really think that the world is about others, but do we act like it? How many times a day do we really, no strings attached, think about another person's well being? THEIR world. And not because thinking of them and helping them, helps us, but just because...
Humanity has a hard time seeing the smaller picture. We spend so much time painting a broad stroke over everything. We paint the world with our own individual paint brushes. With strokes that deem people as happy, depressed, mean, spoiled, unchurched, grumpy, offensive, rude, self-centered... We paint the world according to the imperfect colors we have on our pallets. The problem? We cannot create light from dark. In our own imperfection we use a spectrum of color that comes from the shadows of our own hearts. We see all things dimly. We cannot judge a person's intentions, because we just can't know them. So here's the point: we have to allow God to change our pallet of colors, to shine light into our own hearts, so that when we project things onto others we are projecting love, understanding, peace, joy, compassion. The very same colors that Christ paints us with.
Most of the time I get so focused on the "big" things in life. Like wanting to do more for God, so I can make Him proud of me or something irrational like that. However, I can't make Him prouder of me than He already is. Neither can I make Him love me more. He loves us with an everlasting love. And from this love He gives this command, "Love ME with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." Then, "love your neighbor as yourself." From our relationship with Him comes the ability to love our neighbors, and when we are loving our neighbors we are changing their world. We help to add different colors of light to their pallets so that they can do the same for others. The truth is, the key to world change isn't through lots of money and big charity campaigns, it's through realizing that as our inner worlds are altered, outer worlds are changed.
Change begets change. It is easy to try and change the world through writing a check, or volunteering, and I am not saying these things are bad. However, I do think that nothing gets changed without love. So no matter how many checks we write or homeless shelter meals we serve, if we have no love it doesn't really change anything. (I Corinthians 13) The ultimate point is this: We have to let ourselves be loved by God first. By makeing HIM the center, we can walk into unfamiliar worlds and say I am going to love you, like Christ has loved me.
Love you like Christ. Like when He sacrificially left His home and came to an unfamiliar world to learn its culture, customs, language, heart. We too can say, "I am going to sacrificially learn another's "culture," "language," dreams and desires." And then lay myself down for them. There are over 6 billion individual sub-cultures in this world. For every human being there is more to learn. And all that information means that we will be better equipped to love them. Taking our eyes off of ourselves, and our "worlds," and learning to speak the language that every "world" needs to hear and experience, love. And when you love someone long enough and hard enough it has the power to change them forever. Anyone who has been relentlessly pursued by Christ can testify to that. So, friends, here's to being changed by love. Here's to loving relentlessly. Here's to changing the world.
In our worlds we see every individual like they are the "extras" and we the leading roles, at best we see others as the "supporting cast" on our stage. Let's be honest. We do don't we? Our every action stems from our need to be the "center" of our universe. A world unto ourselves. A lone island in the midst of an ocean. Because of this tendency, it's easy to assume that everyone thinks like we do. That everyone should agree with us, because on our planet everyone would. Duh... So at this point if you disagree, stop that! Just kidding. Seriously, though, we can say that we really think that the world is about others, but do we act like it? How many times a day do we really, no strings attached, think about another person's well being? THEIR world. And not because thinking of them and helping them, helps us, but just because...
Humanity has a hard time seeing the smaller picture. We spend so much time painting a broad stroke over everything. We paint the world with our own individual paint brushes. With strokes that deem people as happy, depressed, mean, spoiled, unchurched, grumpy, offensive, rude, self-centered... We paint the world according to the imperfect colors we have on our pallets. The problem? We cannot create light from dark. In our own imperfection we use a spectrum of color that comes from the shadows of our own hearts. We see all things dimly. We cannot judge a person's intentions, because we just can't know them. So here's the point: we have to allow God to change our pallet of colors, to shine light into our own hearts, so that when we project things onto others we are projecting love, understanding, peace, joy, compassion. The very same colors that Christ paints us with.
Most of the time I get so focused on the "big" things in life. Like wanting to do more for God, so I can make Him proud of me or something irrational like that. However, I can't make Him prouder of me than He already is. Neither can I make Him love me more. He loves us with an everlasting love. And from this love He gives this command, "Love ME with all your heart and soul and mind and strength." Then, "love your neighbor as yourself." From our relationship with Him comes the ability to love our neighbors, and when we are loving our neighbors we are changing their world. We help to add different colors of light to their pallets so that they can do the same for others. The truth is, the key to world change isn't through lots of money and big charity campaigns, it's through realizing that as our inner worlds are altered, outer worlds are changed.
Change begets change. It is easy to try and change the world through writing a check, or volunteering, and I am not saying these things are bad. However, I do think that nothing gets changed without love. So no matter how many checks we write or homeless shelter meals we serve, if we have no love it doesn't really change anything. (I Corinthians 13) The ultimate point is this: We have to let ourselves be loved by God first. By makeing HIM the center, we can walk into unfamiliar worlds and say I am going to love you, like Christ has loved me.
Love you like Christ. Like when He sacrificially left His home and came to an unfamiliar world to learn its culture, customs, language, heart. We too can say, "I am going to sacrificially learn another's "culture," "language," dreams and desires." And then lay myself down for them. There are over 6 billion individual sub-cultures in this world. For every human being there is more to learn. And all that information means that we will be better equipped to love them. Taking our eyes off of ourselves, and our "worlds," and learning to speak the language that every "world" needs to hear and experience, love. And when you love someone long enough and hard enough it has the power to change them forever. Anyone who has been relentlessly pursued by Christ can testify to that. So, friends, here's to being changed by love. Here's to loving relentlessly. Here's to changing the world.
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