Sunday, September 19, 2010

Turn the World Upside Down

“But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”” – Acts 17:6 NKJV

Yahoo used to be my internet home page, simply because I liked the way it would give you little news tidbits, so that I wouldn’t be completely lost as to what was going on outside of the bounds of my country. But after a while, I got sick of what I saw. A sex scandal here, a school shooting there, wars over the most miniscule of things, and blatant destruction of the environment by a radical and distorted capitalistic mentality. At the same time, celebrities who contribute very little constructively to our society are blown up far bigger than is necessary. Do I really need to know that Lindsay failed a drug test, or that Miley deactivated her Twitter account? How does that affect my life? It seemed to me that as the world got worse, the media became the opium to placate the masses. Why should we care about stopping our moral decay when there’s a new movie coming out? Sometimes I sit and wonder if I were have kids, what kind of world would they grow up in? I know that this sounds sorta pessimistic, but it seems as though the world has been turned upside down.

Tonight at church, our pastor was talking an ancient church in 52 A.D., reputed by being started by “those who have turned the world upside down.” The entire religious beliefs of those who are know as Christians today came from small churches like these. It went from a few people to near to 2 billion all over the world. In the end, they really did turn the world upside down!

Nickelback is a band that I listen to from time to time. They have this one song called “If Everyone Cared”. Throughout the song’s video are various examples of people who have changed the world. Bob Geldof, Betty Williams, Peter Beneson and Nelson Mandela were all ordinary people who changed there world in unbelievable ways. They didn’t have any special privileges or any advantage over anyone else. They were just regular people like you and me.

So I’ve made a decision. I’m going to turn the world upside down. I may not lead any marches or start any revolutions. I may never become one of those famous people who are quoted, but I’ll change the world in my own way. By being the best me that I can be. By influencing those around me to do the same. We can’t just sit on our hands and wait for the world to change. We have to get up and go change it. And never think that what you do is so tiny that it doesn’t matter, or that it’ll never be noticed. We don’t live in a vacuum. Every good thing we do starts chain reactions that inspire others to do the same. So tomorrow, when you go out to wherever you go, don’t shake your head at what you see. Just do one thing, one small thing to change it and you’ll be doing the world a big favor.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. – Margaret Mead, American Anthropologist.

Today I changed Yahoo back to my home page. One day, the world is going to be turned upside down. And I’ll be glad to say that I helped.

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