Changing the World by Changing Me
encountered a quote this weekend from Leo Tolstoy that jarred me. It said “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
I think I, for one, am guilty of often thinking and talking about the big picture and the grand ideas, and being cynical about the way things are. This quote reminded me and encouraged me to start to become the kind of person that is so loving, self-controlled and Christ-like that the world will in fact be changed, rather than just talked about being changed.
Also, in browsing back through a book I am reading “A Resilient Life” I found some things that speak to this. He writes (beginning with a quote from a Scott Turrow novel):
” ‘Many years ago I learned their dirtiest, most crabbed secret. That their passion to change the world derived from the fact that they could not change themselves.’ Was Turrow reading my mail when he wrote those words? Did he know that, as a younger man, I was regularly talking about something I’d not mastered myself? How did he identify this human tendency of ours to preach hard and to lay a guilt trip on others as a kind of cover for our own sense of shallowness?”
“A second thing I learned about the pursuit of resilience was rather obvious but, nevertheless, important to acknowledge: ‘Developing resilience is demanding, mostly done in secret, often humbling, not always fun.’ ”
And one more thing to chew on “one must anticipate that the greatest contributions God has for us to make will happen in the second half of life.”
The race of life is a race of distance, not a sprint. Caleb in the OT is a great example of being a champion in the second half of life. Read Joshua 14. Caleb says “Give me the hill country… i am eighty-five, and I’m as strong as I was at forty-five.”
What is the Lord saying to you about your race?
May 2nd, 2006 at 6:35 pm
I believe God is trying to teach me to persevere.
You quoted,
“How did he identify this human tendency of ours to preach hard and to lay a guilt trip on others as a kind of cover for our own sense of shallowness?â€?
I learned this lesson this past year. I began to notice that when it comes to ’sin’ issues, we always tend to point out and expose the things that we do not necessarily struggle with in secret. I may be a liar, but at least I am not cheating on my wife, or I may be violent, but at least I am not gay, etc.
I realized the problem was that if we are to be people of love and grace, then we need to be more transparent in our own lives. To be living examples of that changedness (if that is even a word).
Great thoughts.
May 4th, 2006 at 7:41 am
I can’t change the world. I can’t even change myself. All I can do is open myself to God’s spirit, hold his hand, and walk. Change is a process. Somewhere ahead is something better. God promises that. Getting there isn’t much fun, which probably has a lot to do with people working to change the world instead of changing themselves.
May 4th, 2006 at 8:10 am
thanks for sharing these thoughts - i am writing these days about changing our world and your comments resonate with me especially as i am entering the second half of my life. this process of change (internal and external) is ongoing, personal, up and down, high and low and everything in-between. reminds me of the story of the person who drew a circle, stepped into it and say to God, “let the change begin right here.” may it be so.