Change Through Beauty

How do you change the world? Perhaps the first question should be, why would you want to change the world? Some want to change it for personal power or prosperity. Others are motivated by ideology. Jesus is motivated by people. We live in a world where people are ground up by neglect, poverty, slavery, abuse, and addiction; where people find their life leached away by the controlling power of sin. Jesus works to overturn the status quo because it's killing people. This shapes how Jesus works to change the world. His primary work is to bring beauty into the world, and that should be our mission as well.

Some people try to change the world by focusing on what they want to get rid of. This doesn't work. While we need to deal with the problems of the world, you bring change by focusing on your target, on the change you hope to achieve. Paul exhorts each of us to, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things (Col 3:2)." He then unpacks the idea. We are not to live by our culture's rule. We are to throw off selfish and destructive behavior and to follow Jesus' example of life-giving love. We are to bring beauty into the world.

Confession time. I grew up as a Boy Scout. My father was a scout master, and there is a newspaper clipping from an Alaskan newspaper with me at age four standing next to my Dad in a specially made scout uniform (Yeah, it explains so much). The scouts have a goal to do at least one good deed a day, and while some people make fun of that, the practice was based on Jesus (Boy Scouts began as a Christian outreach). If you want to express Christ to the world, you do it with acts of love.

You are not going to change the world by complaining about it. Protest and violence spark fear and hatred rather than inspiring action. Peer pressure lasts only for the moment. We can't force love through politics (although we can and should protect people through the law). We are to speak out against injustice and ignorance, but we bring change by majoring in love rather than focusing on sin.

You want to change the world for Jesus? It begins with small things. Listen to an ignored person. Share with someone in need. Stand between the oppressed and the oppressor. Visit the forgotten. Help the sick. Give hope to the hopeless. You don't have to look far. I can look around me on the campus I work on and there is a lot of need. You can't minister to all the world's need. You're not asked to. Every day, your asked to touch someone.

Beauty is contagious. Just look at Jesus. Who else has inspired so much good while only living in the public spotlight for just three short years? Yes, people have done evil in Jesus name and that is wrong, but so much more good has been done. Love and beauty are the main themes of both the Old and the New Testament. It should be ours as well. Be purposeful. Look for some way to bring beauty into someone's life today. Change the world.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion---
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3