\u201cLet us assume the best of intentions. Christians today\u2014 of whatever stripe\u2014 sincerely want to engage the world for good. As we have seen, though, Christians have embraced strategies that are, by design, incapable of bringing about the ends to which they aspire.\u201d1<\/p>\n
This statement gives voice to a nagging concern I have had a hard time getting words around for some time.\u00a0 It is the reality that the best of intentions are just not enough to actually make any substantive change happen.\u00a0 If intentions were enough, then we would be living in a global utopia right now!\u00a0 The vast majority of people (be they Christians or other strands of \u201cpeople of faith\u201d) genuinely want the world to be better, happier, friendlier, kinder, more considerate, more caring\u2026 but with all of there good wishes and intentions, look around.\u00a0 Does it seem that we\u2019re any closer today to living in a happy, blissful world absent of war and brutality? \u00a0 Probably not.<\/p>\n
It seems to me that the key here is that we have been leaning on our own strategies and plans.\u00a0 Since we have the desires, it stands to reason that we should also have the cure, right?\u00a0 Well maybe not.\u00a0 I seem to remember reading somewhere in the scripture about God thinking thoughts that are \u201chigher\u201d (think\u2026 DIFFERENT in substance) than ours and that his ways are far different.\u00a0 Could it be as simple as that?\u00a0 We have misplaced our confidence and assumed we could strategize our way to our desired outcomes?\u00a0 That, since we dreamed up this utopian vision, we should be the ones to scheme up a way to see it come to fruition?\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of another passage that talks about how we should not lean on our own understanding, but how do we do that?\u00a0 How do we walk in that kind of confidence when we are pressed on every side with the reality of people suffering and \u201cwe have the answer\u201d after all?<\/p>\n
I think maybe we have conflated two ideas\u2026\u00a0 The idea of changing the world and the idea of inviting people into a relationship with Jesus.\u00a0 Maybe these are two very different ideas and we have allowed our response to our calling to do the one (Bring people to Jesus) to be confused with the other which really isn\u2019t our job at all?\u00a0 So maybe if I just do my job, and let God do his, I can have confidence that our world will be transformed when and how HE wants it to be.\u00a0 Interesting\u2026.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1. James Davison Hunter To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World <\/i>(London: Oxford University Press. 2010) 99.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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