Stop trying to change the world!

       Change the world.
       Leave a mark.
       Leave a legacy.
       Make A difference.
       Be a World Changer.
       Be a history maker.
       Make your life count.
       Make a lasting impression
       Be the generation that changes things.
       Change a life
       Rescue a life
       End poverty
       End sex trafficking
       End domestic abuse
       End _______________

   
       It all sounds good doesn't it.  It all sounds really, really, good, and it speaks to us at a deep level.  We want to change the world, we want to leave a mark, we want to be a history maker, we want to be a part of ending slavery, poverty, sex trafficking, domestic abuse.  Who wouldn't want to be apart of providing homes for orphaned kids all across the globe.  All of the rhetoric above seems to be common place within western evangelical Christianity and especially in ministry towards youth and young adults.  I have used the above phrases numerous times with various groups of people.  I have taken students on multiple short term mission trips with a great organization called, "World Changers" where the first day of the trip we learn the theme song...
"You can be a world changer.
Shinning your light for those in danger.
Sharing the love of our Lord and Savior.
You can change the world.
Go out and change the world."
       However, the more I think about this common rhetoric the more I see several dangers.
First, it is easy to picture ourselves as the hero, the godsend, the rescuer, the one who is going to sweep in and save the day.  As that thinking seeps into our minds we lose sight of the Gospel, we lose sight of Jesus, we lose sight of the Biblical truth that we are not the hero's, the godsends, the rescuers.  Instead we are the ones who need a hero, who need a godsend, who need to be rescued and Jesus alone is the God-send, the hero, the rescuer who swept in and saved the day.  As we forget who the only hero is we tend to over-emphasize our ability to make a change and under emphasize our desperate need upon God to change people's lives.
        Secondly, the above language has the ability to downplay the importance of everyday faithfulness to God in the mundane, routine, ordinary tasks of life.  The vast majority of our lives our not lived in the "world changing, history making, ending sex trafficking realm."  The vast majority of our lives are spent in the ordinary tasks of life.  You will spend countless hours at work during your life and most people cannot easily connect how their day to day work is "world changing" in our common understanding of the phrase.  However, if we understand that we have not been called to be world changers but instead we have been called to be faithful it changes how we go about work.  Faithfulness to God in work comes through doing our work in order to serve and bring glory to God, and doing our work to serve our neighbors.  This shift from "world changer" to faithfully following Christ not only applies to work but to every area of life.  It applies to marriage, parenting, being a neighbor, and being apart of the local body of believers.  It applies to mowing, doing laundry, making dinner, changing diapers, and washing dishes.  We must be careful to not speak in such a way that the vast majority of our life is seen as unimportant, because in every area of our life God desires us to be faithful to Him, to serve Him, and to bring glory to Him.  It is also in the mundane areas of life that God desires to use to make us more and more into the image of His Son Jesus Christ.  If we don't emphasize faithfulness to God in all of life we will send countless people running from "high to high" of Christian world changing activities and all the while missing out on the countless daily opportunities to bring glory to God when we are faithful in the small, ordinary, mundane things in life.
       Lastly, the above language undermines what we have been most called to.... and that is to know Jesus Christ.  We have been called to a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We have been called to know Him, Love Him, to be like Him.  Our calling first and foremost is to a person, it is to a relationship, it is to our savior Jesus Christ.  That is our calling first and foremost to Jesus and everything we are called to be and do is the result of that relationship.  We are called to be salt and light but our salt and light is a result of us being in a relationship with Jesus.
        We are not called to change the world.... we are called to a relationship with Jesus Christ.  To love Him, to serve Him, to bring glory to Him.  We are called to be faithful.  We are called to love our neighbor.  As you pursue Christ, as you bring glory to Him, as you serve Him, as you strive for faithfulness in the big and the small, and as you love your neighbor you just might find the world around you changing because you are in a relationship with the one who changes people's world.