What does that look like? To stand so strongly for something that you would surrender your soul and abandon your heart for one reason? For one cause? Is it a reflex to lengthen your arms in praise or a choice? an action simply shaped by our environment or one we have elected to do through free will?
The other night, someone said these words and it shook me the wrong way. “We are not called to change the world.” It shook me because I think we are. We are called to go to the nations. We are called to be the change we want to see. No it will not change overnight. No we can’t impact all of humanity by one action. But by no means should we sit back and accept what this world has thrown at us and lay down and take it. We should stand. And fight. Fight not for the sake of fighting, but to defend what is right. What is true. And fight for the greater good.
While we sit here waiting on the world to change, we pass by every opportunity to start the movement ourselves. “We cannot do great things. Only small things with great love.” Mother Teresa hit the nail on the head. We must start small. Grassroots movements can cause a ripple effect. Sure you may only change your behavior. But then someone notices. Soon you have impacted the people closest to you. And then the people closest to them. And then the community. Then the town. The state. The country. And eventually, the world.
What would it look like if the church were to jump into such a movement? As a body, what an impact we could have. If across this earth we were fighting for the same thing? You tell me it can’t change. You tell me it won’t. I say, what if MLK thought that way? I say, what if Einstein thought that way? What if Jesus thought that way?
Jesus came not to save but to serve. For what? So that he could be crucified on our behalf subsequently to watch us sit on our leather sofas in our houses that are too big for our needs, fiddling with such frivolous and indeed superfluous materials, eating our Big Macs while we claim that the control is out of our hands to make a difference in even the smallest of things that plague our own society, let alone the dealings of the soul? I choose to say no. I choose to acknowledge that we can contribute to the change we want to see…
To change behavior you must change the contingencies surrounding it. Rearrange the environment. Alter the consequence. As seemingly impossible as that may sound, it is indeed accomplishable. Have we not already the knowledge of a “better” consequence? One such thing that comes to mind is in regards to taking care of our bodies. The all encompassing flesh that we dwell in daily from whence comes our words, our actions, and the embodiment of our very souls. For example, do we not already know the benefits of healthy eating? Yet why do we continue to consume the things that are harming our bodies in the long run? Eat this value meal now, or not have a heart attack later. We don’t look at that way. We live in a society where instant satisfaction always wins. Where profit is concerned rather than heath. Where the majority is out for number one and not his fellow man. And all the while, the rich get richer, the poor get poorer and all things organic are reserved for those who can afford to lavish themselves in the unnecessary flares of this life. Leaving the over-processed, mass produced “nourishment” as the only option, all the while ever fattening the stomachs of the population on one side of the ubiquitous arches, and the wallets on the other.
A question was posed that as the human body has changed over the years, much in height and overall build, that if being originally created as omnivores and not the vicious carnivores we are today, would we not change to “accommodate” for the growing proportions of fat and meat in our diet? Essentially are we evolving to adapt to our environment? The answer to that question would be both yes and no. And clearly not in an ambiguous sense. Yes, humans are continuing to evolve, adapting to our environment. No, the fast food meat and fat heavy diet is not what we are adapting to. More disease, shorter life-spans, and various complications in heath leading to death are correlated with this lifestyle, dare I say in most every case, causal. If this trend continues, I fear that as a population, we will soon be extinct given our behaviors. We are caving to immediacy. More than an issue of health, this debate draws more on our tendencies as humans to place selfish desires above all else, and if we do it when it comes to our food, how much more our we as a people going to worship anything else that brings us immediate gratification? To avoid the call to change because we are just one person. Because everyone else is doing it. Or no one else is. And mainly, if we’re honest, because it isn’t easy. And hard work takes too much energy when we feel like we don’t see a change.
So where does this leave us? Broken and helpless to change the world? Or empowered to do small things to start the movement? To stand so strongly for something that you would surrender your soul and abandon your heart for one reason means surrendering to something greater than yourself. For the One cause that is more than everything in this world. It is a reflex to lengthen your arms in praise, an overflow of what lies within. A choice to give to the furthering of something so much bigger than we can imagine. A choice to stand, with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the One who gave it all.
