We all know that to change the world, we must first start with changing ourselves.
It seems that there are two natures within us. On the one hand, we believe that we can change ourselves and the world around us. As such, we set goals and initiate change. Sometimes, we succeed. Most often, we don’t. Most often, though, we act as though we don’t know where the tools we need to effect change in ourselves and others are located.
As the human race, we’ve sent people to outer space, to the moon, and we have an international space station right now. We have journeys planned for Mars and other planets. Are the tools we need for change out there? Are we hoping to somehow discover them on a distant planet in a distant future?
I don’t think so.
The tools we need to impact our communities and the world are not far from us. They are not beyond our reach. We don’t need to fly or sail to distant continents to find them. No, the tools are in you and me; the tools are around us.
All change starts with a word. The life-changing word is very near you; in fact, it is in your mouth and in your heart. So all we need to do is act on it. All the tools we need are within us or around us. We see them every day. We simply need to stop looking too far off and become self-aware and look to those around us. The voice in each of us that is commanding and urging us to change our lives is not too difficult for you to obey or somehow beyond your reach. I love these words from Jesus of Nazareth, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
In my own life and in the lives of many others I’ve studied, I’ve never seen a person who asked, sought, and knocked with all their heart and didn’t find the answers they were seeking. That’s the way the world works. The seekers, the ones who keep knocking door after door after door until they find their answer, the wants who wouldn’t take no for an answer, they are the ones who will always succeed.
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