Were your eyes opened, even shattered, by a single story, then by a thousand others like it?
Do you ache to see every wrong righted, every hungry belly filled, every fallow mind cultivated, every broken heart mended?
- Do you long to see justice flood our broken world? Are you undone by the plight of the forgotten and the crushed?
- Are you a lover of orphans, widows, strangers, and the poor?
- Are your feet worn from beating a path to the throne room of Heaven on their behalf?
- Does your mission—to rescue, defend, restore, and heal, to be a voice for the voiceless—border on obsession?
Do you long to spend yourself on behalf of the poor, to break open your one alabaster heart and pour it out on the least of these, as if on Jesus Himself?
If so, you have the heart of a world changer.
Not everyone has it. If you do, you may not realize how lovely—or how rare—it is. Maybe like me, you shrink from the moniker. You may be thinking: “You don’t know my life. You don’t know my limitations. You don’t know my fears. You don’t know my [husband, wife, children, parents, fill in the blank]. You don’t know me.”
For a minute, could we forget about how impossible it all seems and just talk about your heart?
Let me hold up a mirror to you.
Do you find in yourself….
- Passion for the welfare of the downtrodden that borders on obsession?
- Courage to take risks you never would otherwise—not if it were only about you?
- Generosity to sacrifice even what you hold most precious?
- Love that triumphs over fear?
Your obsession may make you a bit odd. It might even put you at odds with your people—your culture, your friends, your political party, and even your family.
Are you a world-changer-in-incubation?
Is your heart weighed down like a rock in your chest with the suffering of a people you’ve come to love?
Is your soul restless to go to them?
Don’t believe the lie that someone else can do it better.
Because the truth is: There is no one else.
If we don’t change the world, who will?
Let me cheer you on past the speed bumps, brick walls, and even the mountains that may rise up in front of you.
- Because the God of the Impossible is with us, none of these are insurmountable.
- Because He sees us as men and women of valor, we can be!
- Because of who He is, He can use us—not just in spite of our fears and flaws and foibles, but because of them.
His strength is perfected [completed, fulfilled, accomplished] in our weakness. (Strong’s Concordance)
Our brokenness is not intimidating to God—not because He doesn’t know the depth of it, but because He knows His own power to work through it. Because of who He is, He can use us to change the world—even if only our little corner of it.
We may make a difference for a few people—or for a few million. That’s God’s business, by the way.
If you find in your heart love for the forgotten and the unlovely, it’s because God deposited it there. God loved them first because God is Love.
The world needs every world-changer-in-waiting to take her rightful place…
…to meet the ocean of need, to right a mountain of wrongs, to develop the gold mine of human potential buried in the rubble of poverty and oppression.
If you’re already blazing a fiery trail to the crushed, raising your voice for the voiceless, pouring into their need every resource you can lay your hands on, I applaud you. Your road is hard, often thankless, and not at all what you expected.
But the moments God shows up are breathtaking. When He grants us a display of His splendor, we fall to our knees in worship and understand down to the marrow of our bones: It is all worth it.
These are the mini-previews of Heaven, when we will cast our crowns at Jesus’ feet, when this present suffering won’t compare at all to that future glory.
Are you a recovering world changer?
Your heart is still ablaze and your vision just as grand as it ever was, but your body or life circumstances stop you in your tracks. Are you feeling sidelined, desperate to be put back in the game?
Take heart, if you’re still breathing, God isn’t finished with you [or me] yet.
Whether you’re:
- Pregnant with vision,
- On a mountaintop of answered prayers,
- In the throes of a heated battle,
- Or flat on your back in the world changers’ recovery room, having poured yourself out on behalf of the poor…
You still have the heart of a world changer.
You still have something to give.
Welcome. I’m so glad you’re here. Let’s do this thing together.