With the excitement of yesterday’s Presidential Inauguration, there seems to be a spirit of enthusiasm in America to join the ranks to make America and the entire earth a better place. President Obama keeps stressing to each of us that he cannot do this thing alone; that he needs each of us to make a difference in our world. So this leads me to ask, “Really, what can I do?”
I would suggest to all of us that this world isn’t going to see long-term positive change based on what we do on a national scale, but rather what each of us does on a heart level. Until the need for change in this world becomes for each of us, a need for change within our own hearts, we will be doing what we’ve done for so long in America; sitting around waiting for someone else to make the world a better place. I would have to admit that while I watch the world news every evening, with people aimlessly shooting rockets into pockets of civilization taking and maiming innocent lives, I can tend to tune it out thinking that it has been this way for thousands of years, and it’s going to be this way until the end of time. But, as long as we stay in that frame of mind, I believe we are completely missing the lesson.
In Matthew 25, Jesus talked about the day that we will all stand before God and give an accounting for our lives. He said,
“Then the King will say to those on His right, “Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why:
I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to see me….
I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me – you did it to me”.
Jesus was a grass-roots kind of guy. He changed the world one person, one need, one issue at a time. Without the help of technology, in the most primitive of circumstances, he lived and died and rose again with such a humble, simple, loving magnificence that whether you believe in His sovereignty or not, no one can argue that He did indeed change the world for all time. I know He changed me.
So, now I’m getting it. I’m not going to change the world until I change my inward focus.
It’s not about me...It’s not even about Obama.
It’s about others…It’s about seeing ourselves as part of a greater collective consciousness… It’s about responsibility and stewardship. And it’s all grounded in LOVE, for ourselves and each other.
So, today I will open my heart to see the others around me. I may not be able to change the world on a global scale, but I can hold someone’s door, have someone over for dinner, listen to a friend, pray for my husband, visit at the hospital, call my parents, or just compliment a complete stranger on how nice they look today. I’ve lived long enough to know that it’s the little things that make the biggest differences.
That’s what love’s got to do with it. Everything.
“Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?” Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence’. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself’: These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matthew 22:36-40
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