Step Into The World

This week the Daily Devos are going to be focused on one very simple idea:  Changed people can change the world.  In other words, if you want to change the world, the change you seek needs to begin in you. 

Each day this week, we're going to be exploring practical ways that we can open ourselves up to the transforming power of God in your life.  I hope that these devos will become action items in your life, as I will be striving to make them in mine. 

Today the action item that we'll be exploring is one that might sound a bit odd at first, but we're going to unpack it thoroughly.  Here it is:  Step into the world.

When I was growing up in the church-y world of conservative evangelicalism, we were warned about the dangers of "becoming like the world."  

"The world" is a derogatory phrase that I still hear used today by many Christians when they describe the things about our culture they find offensive.  I recently heard a pastor bemoaning the state of "this fallen world," as he related all of the things that he considered "wrong" and "sinful."    

To all those Christians who seem to have such a problem with the world around them, I have only this to say: 

How can you expect to reach people who need to hear a word of hope, who need to know that God is for them and not against them when you are constantly attacking the world within which they live?   

When those of us who say that we follow Jesus determine that we are going to step into the world and embrace all that is good, beautiful and true about it, it changes the game.  It opens up possibilities for us to discover new ways to bear witness to the Christ-light within us.  

Theologian Walter Brueggeman once wrote: 

God's miracles are like this: new life and new gift well up in ways we do not understand.  There is slippage in our management of the world.  There is mystery that subverts our best calculations, and life seeps through the cracks with newness that we cannot make for ourselves.         

In order for us to embrace the mystery and the new life that God is constantly sharing with us, we must step into the world that God loves so much that God became one of us to save all of us. 

May you step into this God-soaked, God-so-loved world with joy and anticipation today and every day.  And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always.  Amen.