Something Has to Change

Have you ever been in a place in your life where you’ve said, “something has to change?” I’ve been there. I can remember a time when I was so hungry for God and I was needing to see something different. I was yearning for something and I just couldn’t place my finger on it. Something had to change. I heard someone say that change isn’t change until it’s changed. I don’t know what it was about that statement that did it, but it shifted my thinking and I began to do something that began a shift and a change in the direction of my life.

Think of all the times you’ve said the same thing. You say to yourself that you wish you saw a change in the government. You say you wish you saw a change in Hollywood. You’ve probably said you wish you saw a change in your relationships or in the trajectory of your career. Whatever the case may be, when you discover that thing that needs to change, the reality is that you may not necessarily be able to change the large or abstract thing directly. There are times when the easiest thing that you can do is to change yourself or your perspective.

We’re just weeks away from the end of the year and many of us may see things that didn’t go the way we hoped or just want to improve in one area or another. Perhaps that’s getting more physically active so that we have that summer body earlier. Maybe it’s getting more vocal or making a bigger impact on the local community. What if the change you’re seeking has to come closer to home than you thought?

If you’ve been saying that you wish things were different at the peaks of those cultural mountains, perhaps the change that needs to take place begins with a change in you. It is said that “power abhors a vacuum!” If that is true, then there has to be someone or something to fill that vacuum. In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus tells of what happens when an unclean spirit is driven out of a man. Jesus points out that if there is nothing done to fill the void and that spirit that was driven out sees it vacant, will be emboldened to return with seven other spirits that are more wicked than he is. Jesus says that the end state is essentially worse than the beginning state.

People who cry for change in government or any of the other mountains of cultural influence need to have this understanding and be willing to be the first partaker of self-change in the area that has gripped their hearts. As an example, you may feel that what you’re seeing in Hollywood is unbearable because of the woke agenda that seems to permeate throughout all that you see in film and television.

The easiest change you can make is changing what you watch so that you’re not promoting what you despise with your time and money. Perhaps you’re a creative person and you find that the alternative options are of lesser quality and make it difficult to switch away from the big budget productions. Maybe that is a call for you to lend your talents and gifts to creating or possibly funding others who have the vision that could rival the old guard. That’s just one example.

Consider where you are and what God has been pressing you to do as a means of change. I won’t pretend that making the decision to personalize change is easy. What I will say is that you never know where that one change can lead and how a simple change can steamroll into an impact on the mountains of culture. Sometimes, the goal is not always in attacking things at the top. You have to first find where your greatest strength and authority lie and begin there. As you show faithfulness and consistency, God opens the doors to have the influence to impact change higher up the mountain over time.

If there is a pressing within you to see change, start with yourself, listening to God for where and how that should unfold. If something needs to change, the easiest is often closer than you think.