Change Who?

For most of my adult life I have been a professional minister. It’s all I’ve ever really wanted to do. An opportunity to love Christ, study the Bible, tell others about Jesus were all simple and compelling reasons to pursue ministry vocationally. And so I did. I can’t imagine myself having done anything else.

While caring for souls is an honorable profession, danger looms for one’s own soul. For what begins as a pure motivation to help others can over time deteriorate into the mentality to fix others. As professional ministers it’s easy to see our “job” as evaluating a life and then…encouraging…helping…exhorting…fixing. All the while forgetting or at least ignoring that the most important changes need to be taking place in our own hearts.

“Lord, change Jim. Use me to show him his self centeredness and bitterness. His wife is suffering because of it, and it’s hurting the reputation of the church. Thank you, Lord, that I’m not like Jim. I read my Bible every day, take my wife on a date once a week and serve you faithfully.” Okay, maybe that is a reach, but somehow it has a familiar ring to it.

I've been thinking lately that my prayers for others might also include phrases like, “pour out Your grace in their life; bless them; may they live as Your beloved child; continue the work You have already began in them.” And those for myself, “control me; reveal my blind spots; transform me; change me.”

The Times of London once invited G.K. Chesterton (his writings influenced the conversion of C.S. Lewis) and other notable authors to write essays on the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” His response went right to the heart of the matter: Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton. And in spirit of that response we have the answer to our own question, “Change who?” Change me.