we live in a pretty tough area with some hectic stuff going on around us at times and it can often be quite frustrating trying to figure out what we can do to make a real difference around here and the other day when i was praying about it and asking God what could be done specifically about the drug dealers who work in the road next to us, i had a sense of God saying, “Change yourself.”
As G.K. Chesterton famously responded when asked by the Times to write an article on the subject “What is wrong with the world?” he wrote the words “I am” as his whole essay.
And it was totally that. It’s great advice anyway because i am really the only person i have any direct power over. i can influence or encourage or inspire other people, but i can only change myself.
IN ME
the problem, or the manageable problem in this neighborhood lies in me.
fortunately, that’s where the solution resides as well…
“Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” [Colossians 1:24-29]
i love those words – Christ in me, the hope of glory. they are powerful words, and they are Truth. i do have something in me that does have something to offer to this neighborhood, to the people who live here and to those who sell drugs outside our back door. i have the key to life to the full. abundant, adventurous, radical world-changing life.
now i just have to figure out how to join the dots, so back to my knees it is.
!["Lord, save us from Your followers." [part ii]](https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/d8f07370269c3de3782c686db905707d?s=40){kind=small}
the simple weigh 
Posted by the simple weigh « Irresistibly Fish on December 2, 2011 at 1:33 pm
[…] challenged me and made a complete lot of sense and has the word ‘sexy’ in the title thirdly, the question of what is wrong with the world and an unexpected answer in the midst of a lo… which has the word ‘world’ in the title, so a lot less people will click on it than the […]
Posted by Reads of the week – 2011 – 41 « Hope In Love on December 3, 2011 at 1:33 am
[…] what is wrong with the world – brett anderson […]