Be the Change You Want to See
Taken from Miss Burris’ talk at chapel on Friday, September 7.
In Acts 17, the disciples had the reputation as “those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” In 2000 Kevin Spacey and Haley Joel Osment starred in the movie, “Pay it Forward” that chronicles the life of a 7th grade boy who believed that it was possible to change the world. Are these just nice stories or is there solid truth behind it? Can ordinary people do extraordinary things? Can people of all ages TODAY in the 21st century turn the world upside down?
That is the challenge laid before the junior high students this year at this week’s chapel. Ask any of them what needs to be different in the world they live in and they might respond with intolerance, poverty, put downs, insecurities, cliques… We live in a world that is in desperate need of a better answer, a reason to live life with hope that there has to be more. But should we just sit and discuss the problems of today and get into heated debates about what needs to change and point fingers at Washington or that bully in the hallway. What if we dared to be tolerant in a world full of intolerance. What if we dared to be inclusive in a world full of cliques and racism. What if we dared to build others up in a world that puts others that are different down. What if we dared to be the light of the world, a city on a hill that cannot be hidden that shines in a dark world. What if we dared to believe that change was possible? What if we dared to believe the words Jesus says in Mark 9:23 “’If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. ‘” What if we dared to turn this world upside down beginning in the junior high hallway, our sports teams, our neighborhoods? Maybe the realm of impossibility can now become possible, if we dared to BE the change that we want to see.
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