Things to remember before you try to change the world.
God is not a Republican. He’s not a Democrat, a Libertarian or a member of the Green Party. God is neither far right nor far left. He is definitely not a moderate. God’s not even an American. God will not show you His papers. God is not a political platform, doctrinal diatribe, or denominational distinctive. God is God.
You are not God. You’ve never been God and you’ll never be God. You don’t have God’s perspective nor His patience. God is bigger than you. You are really small and God is really big. I cannot overstate how small you are in comparison to God. Try to imagine the difference, then multiply that by more than you can imagine. That would be the difference between your size and God’s size.
Your plans are person-size plans. People-size plans are very small. Even really good people-size plans are still limited by the size of people. Your plan is dust-size, mite-size in comparison to God.
You are the most dangerous person you will ever meet. You have the ability to ruin your life. The world is not your first problem. You are your biggest problem, you are your biggest dilemma, and you are the most important assignment of your life. If you don’t get this thing with you figured out, nothing else will matter.
Before you change the world, deal with the brokenness within you. If you don’t think you’re broken, then you are the worst kind of broken, the kind of broken that refuses to be fixed. People who refuse to admit to their brokenness have a habit of hurting the world. They tear others down to build themselves up, they waste decades trying to defeat the infidels while their closest relationships crumble.
Before you change the world, admit that you have always been a hypocrite. You are not consistent in your actions, your behavior is duplicitous. Your thoughts and inner motivations are frequently conflicted and even sometimes downright wicked. You are a hypocrite in need of grace. The world is destroyed by perpetually righteous men with perpetually righteous motivations. Don’t be that person! Don’t be the unyielding unrepentant fool. Be humble, admit to your hypocrisy, grow in your awareness of the grace in which you stand. Bring others into that grace. Before you change the world.
Doug Bursch blogs at www.Fairlyspiritual.org and tweets Fairlyspiritual.
Douglas Bursch is the author of Posting Peace: Why Social Media Divides Us and What We Can Do About It. He also hosts The Fairly Spiritual Show podcast.