The Change We Want To See
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
I remember the first time I read this quote on a poster in my college counsellor’s office. “That’s all good, but these nice motivational speeches don’t really do a lot but talk…” I remember thinking cynically – missing the whole point of the quote entirely.
I was sixteen, generally optimistic about my life, but looking at those who I had grown up with, I was prone to feeling slightly cynical and disillusioned at times. Face to face with the college counsellor’s trendy glasses I felt the resentment rising as I thought “OK, Mr Big-Talk-Counsellor, what change are you around here!” Because that’s the problem isn’t it? The olders don’t seem to do anything but make misguided conclusions about the new depths that the younger generation have sunk to when it gets too bad for them to ignore. Am I right?
However truthful or disrespectful that statement sounds, in this mindset lies the problem, this mentality will turn us into the type of adult we complain about. To put it plainly, we go from youth in Air Max 90s and big earrings complaining, to adults standing around the water cooler in pressed suits and sophisticated heels complaining, and inevitably the only thing that has changed in all those years was the fashion. Not a good look fam’.
One thing that stuck with me since the age of fourteen is my youth pastor standing up one Friday night and saying “I am not going to bring your friends to Christ!” I never consciously realised that there was any expectation of it, but at that moment the Great Commission in Matthew 28 became more than just an important command – it became a responsibility that was firmly pressed upon my shoulders. Think about it, your youth leader or bishop isn’t in your school day in and day out. They aren’t available to look to as a Jesus ambassador when the madness kicks off on road or elsewhere. The only time they get to talk to your friends is a 40 minute sermon once a week, if your friends even reach church. Wherever you have been placed, God has put you there for a reason, “who can say but you were brought here for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14).
One thing that I’ve heard more than once though, is that we “react instead of act”. Blame MTV, internet or even the state of society but we seem to of inherited a passive mentality, “good things to come to those who wait”, but at the same time we don’t want to wait too long – I mean come on, we deal with high speed broadband and microwave rice out here. But this passive impatience isn’t going to see the problems get resolved, it isn’t going to see our peers stop the foolishness, sex, greed and violence, and it’s going to take more than sending them the freshest gospel tracks over MSN, no matter how good the punch lines are.
Before someone misquotes me, don’t get it twisted, I love the gospel music out there without a doubt, but the evangelism levels need to be pushed further than everyone getting excited at gospel events and youth retreats. The passion needs to come out onto the streets, and one characteristic of passion is that it can’t be faked, or you just come across as patronising and insincere.
To see transformation in our world, I guess the biggest hurdle we have to overcome is ourselves and our bad habits and mentalities, but Jahaziel put it perfectly “if you want to see change that be changed”…
Jeni Diamondz - RTS
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