How to Change the World in Three Easy Steps: 3 – Dare to Do
Way too long ago to think about now, I was nominated for a position on my university’s Christian Union committee. It was a contested seat and so the interview and speech section of the AGM was doubly important. The night before a wise Christian asked me how my speech writing was going, and I informed her that God was sovereign over the events at the AGM so I didn’t have to worry about writing a speech or thinking about my answers to any questions in advance because if God wanted me on the committee he would make sure I was elected.
She then politely suggested to me that maybe it would show a little bit of respect for a job that I felt God might have been calling me to if I had actually thought about it beforehand and had a few things to say. After all, God could ordain his will in my preparation as well.
Of course she was right. I was crazy to think that God would want me to stand up in front of the CU and explain why I felt called to be their Outreach Secretary without even thinking about it beforehand. And I am very grateful that I did because I would have looked like a right muppet if I hadn’t.
It’s a silly example, but the point still stands that there is no point praying for something if you don’t care about it enough to put some hard work in to back it up.
It’s hard to know exactly what you need to ‘do’ without knowing what it is that you are passionate about. If it’s a social issue maybe you should be writing letters, campaigning, organising petitions. If it is something in church that winds you up and makes you angry then maybe you should be volunteering for things. Perhaps that hard work would be practising a musical instrument so that you can be part of the music group, or maybe it would mean learning a new skill.
The gospel is a call to action. You can’t sit in a room with the doors closed, read your bible, pray and say “that’s it I am a Christian”. There are too many Christians around who seem to think that Christianity is an academic discipline. Jesus called us to repent and be baptised. These are doing words, not musing words.
Luke 3:9 says this: “The axe is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Galations 5:22 tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These aren’t feelings, they are actions. You don’t feel patient, you are patent, you don’t feel kind, you are kind. Even love isn’t just a feeling. The fluffy feeling of a new relationship isn’t constant, sometimes you aren’t a walking cliché, but you still make your wife her hot chocolate at night, you still buy her presents, not because you feel in love with her, but rather because you are in love with her.
You ‘do’ Christianity.
There’s that old adage ‘go and preach the gospel, and if necessary use words.’ I’ve heard talks where people have disagreed with this. And certainly we do need to use words to explain about Jesus, we do need words to pray, but our actions are what authenticate our words and our faith. James 2:26 tells us that faith without deeds is dead.
I heard it said recently that that passionate people are very rarely unsuccessful. Which, for the most part, is an accurate observation. I hear people say ‘oh, so-and-so is very passionate’. I’ve said it a lot myself. I have met some very passionate people. But surely every Christian should be passionate?
That isn’t to say that being a Christian and being ‘British’ are mutually exclusive. How you choose to express your passion is up to you, whether you like to scream and shout and wave your hands or whether you like to be quietly passionate, either is fine. The only thing I will say is that God makes his people passionate. He puts individual passions in people’s hearts. Every Christian has something that they feel so burdened about that they simply have to do something about it. If you haven’t found yours yet don’t worry – keep looking, because it is out there.
But what I am saying is this: when God convicts passionate Christians and they feel compelled to pray about and act on these passions amazing things happen. With God’s help we can change the world.
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