Change the World

As followers of Jesus, we are a people who know change individually and collectively. Jesus embodied change and called his followers to be changed because they live within the embrace of a loving God. To know Jesus is to be changed—in a redemptive, soul-renewing way.

Recently I sat in a meeting in which people discussed unselfconsciously and with a sense of realism how to change the world by eliminating malaria, a disease of poverty. I spent the day bouncing between awe and amazement. It was emotional because they have already made substantial progress by creating a movement called Nothing But Nets which is an effort to provide bed nets to people in malaria affected zones, mostly in Africa.

It was not a theological discussion, but I reflected upon it from the perspective of my own faith and it provided me with a humbling set of learnings, plus a call to deeper commitment. So, as I look forward to a new year, I reflect on this partnership and what I can learn from it.

The first learning is that as followers of Jesus, we live in the hope of a changed world, a world in which every child has the opportunity to live the abundant life God intends for us. No child need die from a preventable disease. We work toward a world in which we identify the “leading causes of life,” to borrow the wonderful phrase Gary Gunderson and Larry Pray have given us. And we seek to bring life where death imposes its presence with such terrible results as malaria, HIV/AIDS and the other diseases of poverty.

The second learning is that if we come to the table as a community of support with others who share similar concerns and work together, we can, under God's grace, partner with God and others in an ongoing action that leads to life. We are created for relationship with God and with others, and we are called as disciples of Jesus to bring the life-giving light.

And the third learning is that we can do remarkable things if we forget about who gets credit and get on with carrying out the work we are called to do. It is God's world, and we are at best weak reflections of the power and redemptive possibilities of God at work in the world. But we are reflections. The changes we seek do not result from our own doing, but from the presence of a redemptive and loving God who precedes us and beckons us to come into those places where God is already at work.

There are those who are writing and speaking of the past decade as one to forget. That's understandable. The stresses and suffering of these past years are painfully real and have caused great hardship for millions around the globe. We should not minimize this nor let it pass unnoticed and unattended. But it's not enough to conclude that this is the way world is and it can be no other. Nor that this is the whole story.

As a journalist and a person of faith, I came to believe some years ago that there are many small, dramatic stories that reveal world-changing qualities but they don't have the conflict or drama that draws attention. The challenge of journalism is to tell the stories, large and small, in which the human drama is played out.

And the challenge of faith is to understand that it is because of our brokenness that we are called to engage in serving others and being the light of change in places of darkness where people struggle, suffer and endure. We are not called to give in to the forces of evil but to overcome them.

I look to the coming year with great hope, energized by the thought that we in the church can be a part of a world-changing, life-sustaining movement that could very well end a disease of poverty by 2015. So I look forward to telling the stories of life, big and small, that point to the potential for, and the reality of, change. To know Jesus is to be changed and to work toward a changed world.