Agents of Change

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

And later in that letter, Galatians 6:
14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world...17 From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

On Friday's program, I offered these 4 steps regarding embracing a cause with passion -

1 - Identify a cause about which you're passionate (Perhaps a crisis has provided a catalyst for wanting to bring change.)

2 - Pray about how God would have you fulfill that passion

3 - Develop a plan or strategy for addressing the cause

4 - Ask God how best to communicate the passion with others

I appreciate Martin Luther King Day because it challenges me to explore some of the events taking place in and close to our area, think about what life was like back in the days of the civil rights movement, and maybe even make some application to our own lives.   Today on TMH, we will be hearing about some of the characteristics of change agents - and often, a passion for change is birthed in a crisis.   Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not allow the resistance he faced to deter him from his desire to be a strong advocate for justice.   In March of 1963, Dr. King, Fred Shuttlesworth, and Ralph Abernathy turned their attention to Birmingham for the sake of the cause of bringing an end to some of the vestiges of segregation there.   Daily demonstrations took place, and finally, an Alabama court issued an injunction for them to stop.   Dr. King was among those placed in jail, where he stayed for 8 days, including Easter Sunday - during that stay, he wrote what was regarded as a unifying narrative for the civil rights movement, in response to white pastors in Birmingham that said they supported the cause, but felt that the time to address it had not come and that a different method should be utilized.  Dr. King wrote:

Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

After quoting a number of religious and political leaders, King asks:

So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

So, we can be challenged ourselves to be change agents, ordinary people who allow God to do extraordinary things through them - people who develop a passion, speak and do the truth, and rely on the power of God.