To everyone groaning for change
To all the people waiting for their lives to be revolutionized by the next presidential candidate, I'm sorry to disappoint you but it's just not going to happen.
To you who are waiting for policy changes to make people happy and be able to live amazing, fulfilling lives, I'm sorry but that's also unlikely.
Before I go any further, I want to say one thing: I want change. I want change badly, as much as the most liberal democrats. I want peace, happiness, and love for our neighbors (even, no especially, neighbors living in the financial or emotional slums). I want the world to be a good place and I really believe that it could be. The thing is, we're going about it all wrong. Read on, I'll elaborate.
Politically, if you wanted to label me, I would be somewhere between Conservative and Apathetic and here's how I see things. Here's how it is and here is the only way things will change.
The Heart of the Matter
The heart of my view lies in the fact that programs/policies/speeches/bills/laws do not have the power to change people or change the world. When you make people do something, you are chipping at the external. Change, real change, occurs from the inside out.
No bill, law, tax break, educational program, soup kitchen, or handout will make a bad man good. In fact, it is likely to make a bad man worse.
Change occurs, I believe, when God comes into the equation. I believe people grow up and improve spiritually first. People have a spiritual need. Whether or not that need is met, pours over into their feelings and emotions. These feelings and emotions then show themselves as thoughts and finally actions. When we rant and rave about politics inciting change, we concentrate on the actions, but this is really just the chipping away at the outside I mentioned earlier.
Real change, world-changing change, occurs from the inside-out.
Right now, atleast, I think that's with God, through Jesus. The individual is loved on through direct experience and through the people around him. As a result of the love showed for him, a man will eventually want to love around him.
What society would you like to be part of? How about one where elected officials take 2 percent of your money and throw it at poor people? Sounds pretty good, right? I wonder if we can't do better.
A better life?
How about one where a person is loved. He's got a loving relationship with God and those around him. This person walks down the street and sees people that are hurting and he feels compassion and get this, wants to do something. He finds a charity that he identifies with and is fulfilling a real need and gives. He realizes that a stereo for him could be an education for a kid in Africa or a few months worth of meals for his neighbor down the street. He realizes that a stereo isn't what makes him happy anyways- it's his God and his friends. That's all he really needs.
So he helps get a friend hooked up with this whole "God thing," and though it takes time and patience, the friend eventually starts to feel different. He starts to feel loved. Now his feelings and emotions are changing, his thoughts are different and because of that, his actions start to reflect that. The outward growth continues when he finds a friend and his friend finds a friend...
What do you think?
I believe that one person on fire for a cause has more potential than something that makes its way through the Senate and House- even if you throw cash at it.
What's more inspiring to you- a person making $8.00/hr for a federally funded school program, or a Fortune 500 CEO taking a week off work to spend some time talking to and giving to homeless people- not because he wants to look good, not because the government is making him, not even because he feels he should, but because he feels for someone else? He sees a person when he looks into their eyes. Programs have no power for true change, but genuine examples have the power to inspire. God has the power to change. It lies on the inside.
Resist the Temptation of Guilt
**A disclaimer here is that guilt is not the answer to getting people to cough up their dough. Guilted giving is not giving, it is guilt.
Love and example is our only hope for the tight-walleted codger. Love them, whether it be showing concern, giving gifts, words of affirmation, or whatever makes them feel loved. Show them that you have compassion for people with addictions and that you really love to give to charities that help.
One of my favorite thinkers (and one of my favorite thinker's favorite thinkers) gets to the heart of the matter. To me this is the underlying key to change.
"A thing must be loved before it is lovable."
-G.K. Chesterton
also,
"We love because He first loved us."
- 1 John 4:19
So there you have it. My solution to change involves two steps on different fronts.
The Two Prongs of the Fork
First, politically, freedom must be preserved. That means economic freedom, freedom of religion, etc. This is why I'll probably always vote conservative- because they are "hands-off". Conservatives don't believe that programs do much, and neither do I. I vote Conservative not because the idea of conservatism will change the world, but simply because conservatism allows the freedom to find real answers and the freedom to give- not by force, but through compassion.
Secondly, find God, or even better, ask God to find you. He'll show you love. Through always different means, God will show you if you ask. He'll show you how to heal, how to accept love, and once that love starts to fill you up, the overflow will eventually spill onto others.
Recommendation: Changes that Heal (book)
To the non-believer, in this system, the only advice I can give is keep searching. Search for the faith of intellectual giants and of really, the greatest men of all time. Crack open the mind and find the God of Chesterton, Lewis, Doestoevsky, Kierkegaard, Washington, Lincoln, Donne, Milton, and Samuel Johnson, of Malcom Muggeridge, William Wilberforce, Bach, Newton, and Faraday.
Recommendation: Ravi Zacharias
THAT is my outline for change.
The illusion of education
To those who believe that education is the answer, that education alone is the key to a better world full of better people. You must understand that this is not true. That something more, something deeper is needed. Need I remind you that the greatest atrocities the world has seen have come at the hands of the most educated men. No, a good education does not ensure a good man. Good people start in the heart and work their way up.
All I ask for
My wish is that when you hear candidates this year promising change, ask HOW, before you give them your vote.
Change happens with change in one man's heart, following his Lord's greatest commandment- to love his neighbor as himself.
