One Sunday a month I get the privilege of serving in our Sunday School room for kids with special needs at church. Sometimes we have 2-3 kids come, sometimes we have 1, and sometimes we have none. Today was a none day. But I sat and waited, hoping that one of my little friends would come and visit me so that we could play with trains or puzzles or bouncy balls or whatever else they felt like playing with in that moment. As I wait for these little guys to show, I tend to sit and pray over them and their families. This morning, I was praying for one of our kids who had a major surgery around Thanksgiving and is still recovering. I was thinking of him and his life, the way that most people would see all the things he can't do and yet his family chooses to see the joy that he brings to his life. I caught myself speaking these words to God...
"I fully believe that these guys are world changers. Not because of what they do, but simply because of who they are."
And I stopped.
This is what lead me to a faith in Jesus in the first place. I saw the way my brother, Matthew, had changed my life and I NEEDED to know why. I needed an answer for why my family would go through this. I needed an answer for why I felt so passionately called to a career in the field of special education. Since then, I have seen this population of people, my students and campers and friends and those I meet on the street, change the lives of people around them by teaching lessons that NO ONE ELSE could teach on purpose. They teach me every day simply by being who they are. It is the sweetest, most simple blessing I could ask for.
But my train of thought didn't stop there...
What if I was willing to believe that about ME? About my friends and co-workers? What if that was how I viewed baristas and salespeople and the people who get under my skin and the homeless man in the Walmart parking lot?
Let me think on those words again...
"I fully believe that these guys (you, me, all of us) are world changers. Not because of what they (we) do, but simply because of who they (we) are."
He says "Good people bring good things out of the good stored up in them (Luke 6:45)" We don't bring good things to this world by working hard or having the right conversations or loving on the right people. WE ARE THE GOOD. The good of Jesus is ingrained so deeply in us, ALL OF US, that NO ONE CAN CHANGE IT and good overflows from our hearts into this beautifully broken world.
He tells us that "...all who have faith in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these." In my Bible, I have "GREATER things?! Than Jesus?!" scribbled in the margin next to this verse. There are people of all races and abilities and ages and sizes and ethnicity and walks of life who believe in this great Jesus, and all of those people get to read these words. This goes for me, for the President, for a preschooler with Down Syndrome, for an adult working retail. Jesus truly believes that WE WILL ALL DO GREATER THINGS THAN HE DID. All these people, all over the world, for the last 2000 years and for all the years to come. These things that we will do-- they don't make us better people. They don't give us more light or more good or more grace or more salvation, They are a result of the good that is inside us. To us, these things might not look like greater things than walking on water or turning water into wine or healing someone who has been paralyzed his whole life. But...
"I fully believe that we, ALL PEOPLE, are world changers. Not because of what we do, but simply because of who we are."
When you smile at your baby as she comes home from the hospital, you are changing the world. Someone is seeing that and soaking up the love radiating from your being. When you say "Thank you" to the clerk in the grocery store out of habit, someone is taken aback that people still do and say polite things. They feel a little nudge to do the same, even if they don't work up the courage to do it quite yet. When it feels like all you do is go to school and come home and watch Netflix while eating ice cream, you can trust that your life, simply by being, is and has been and will be changing the world. People are watching and learning and growing from YOU, not because of what you do but simply because of who you are and the ways you naturally encourage people to love themselves and others and God.
Everything in our world tells us that we are not enough. We need more makeup on because our face doesn't yet look like a doll. We need new shoes and boots and pants and socks and sweaters and everything else because somehow, our entire closet and dresser full of clothes isn't enough. We need a fancier iPhone because it could be 1/8" thinner and run .174 seconds faster, so naturally that's justification for spending exorbitant amounts of money on a new one. We need to lose 15 pounds because even though that entire closet of clothes still fits you, they are a little more snug than they used to be and Megan Trainor's song is catchy but not yet something we're actually willing to believe (because "Mama, she told me 'Don't worry about your size'" and "Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top" would just be too easy to actually take to heart...).
Normally, I don't get worked up about too many things. But today, THAT MAKES ME SO MAD. Mad for my middle schoolers who have these thoughts pushed into their face every day. Mad for my students who are so deeply misunderstood by so many. Mad for myself and my friends, as New Years resolutions are being thrown around like confetti because somehow, this world keeps convincing even the most level-headed and down-to-earth people that they need to do more to be enough.
Today I say to you, YOU CANNOT DO MORE. Which is awesome, because that means that YOU ARE ALREADY ENOUGH! Your presence in this world is enough to shape the lives of those around you, and sometimes that is all we can ask from ourselves on a daily basis!
Step 1: Show up.
Step 2: Change the world just a tiny bit because you did show up.
Step 3: Sleep & repeat.
I am so thankful for a God that loves us and encourages us as we are, not because of what we do. I am so thankful for a God who meets us where we are and walks with us freely, in the mess and muck and grime of our lives. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." HALLELUJAH, WHAT A SAVIOR! Boasting is exhausting, and so is working. So stop. Breathe. And BE. That is enough.
Today, I hope you can find freedom in the fact that YOU are a world changer, because you are fearfully and wonderfully made to be light and hope and joy and all things good. YOU ARE GOOD because Jesus is SO GOOD. When the world tells you that you need to do or think or say or work more, remember that you showing up for Life every day is enough. More than enough. You showing up for life every day is changing the world. So thank you for showing up today. Keep at it, friend.
Love,
Your partner in world-changing crime.
