Maybe It's More ABout How We Change That What We Change

​Jesus was sent by God to transform the world.

Jesus did that.

At least he has certainly transformed my world.

The key to the kind of transformation that Jesus offered, the key to his example of leadership, Jesus always prioritized the importance of LOVE over the importance of power.

Jesus always prioritized HUMILITY over self-interest.

There's a story in the bible. Jesus had just finished washing his disciples' feet.

And he said:

“Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them."

Jesus message? Any of us who are carrying out God's call upon our lives to transform the world, any of us who are messengers, well our messages should reflected the one who sent us.

Sometimes the world needs change. Sometimes those changes are hard. God of all people understands that.

He sent his only begotten son to DIE for change.

But his son arrived in a manger, not on a throne. His son came lovingly promoting change, not threatening lives and livelihoods into demand change.

Jesus once had an experience with a woman who had committed adultery. Jesus knew she needed change. So did the rulers who were confronting her transgression.

The rulers wanted to stone her into change.

Jesus encouraged her to change with love and understanding and compassion.

So much of the world gets caught up in WHAT needs to change. I think we sometimes forget just how much emphasis God puts on HOW that change needs to come about.

If you believe that God created this universe, and I do, you certainly have to believe that any changes God wants to see in the universe could happen with the snap of his divine finger.

So why not the snap of that finger?

Maybe God is not as interested in specific changes as he is in seeing what kind of character we demonstrate and develop in the process of changing.

God always did - does - seem to place far more emphasis on transformation than change.

Change can indeed happen with the simple push of an email button.

But transformation?

That quite often requires a willingness to wash the feet of the people receiving them.

Not everyone is willing to be that kind of leader.

Jesus was.

For the world who has little interest in Jesus, that's irrelevant. And I certainly understand.

But for those of us who long to get better each day at being God's messenger, God's hands in transformation, in washing one another's feet, little will ever be more relevant.