What Does It Really Mean?

When things are bad, we want to work through them as soon as possible. When things are so bad that we feel imprisoned by our circumstances, we might be inclined to accept change without considering the far-reaching outcomes.

Since the start of World War II, major pushes for change have resulted in some of the most horrific regimes the world has ever known. Thankfully, most challenges do not present us with such hellacious ideas, but sweeping, society-altering changes do occur, and very often the most unwelcome ones occur slowly, over time, and are the result of spiritual and social unrest as much (or more) as they are situated in the realm of material gain. Many of the great shifts in civilization begin with the need for real change; they glide in on the tailwind of innovation and end up the catalysts for a seismic shift in culture.

Today, the need for change is hard to refute. With food prices and mortgage miseries nipping at our financial heels and random violence seeming to increase at exponential rates, “change” is something much vaunted and sought after, but there is a nettling tag on the back of its collar, and the cleaning instructions leave us with a question: Is it change for the better that Americans seek or simply change that distances us from past failures and present quandaries?

The word “change” has been thrown around so much in the last year that it seems hollow and meaningless. Overuse has made it ring through the airwaves with a tinny clang. Change, in the abstract, is something that means nothing, because change is constantly happening. Change is a certainty that is indicative of life. Leaves change in due season, children grow from infants to toddlers, people are born and others die—as long as there is breath, there will be change. But when the word is tossed about as solution, it can mollify listeners and caress us into a false sense of hope which, even if it is illusionary, seems better than nothing.

The rhetoric of change can be intoxicating. Actual change is needed not only in our nation, it is desperately needed in our neighborhoods, in our families, and in our individual lives, but change that is beneficial is quite different than mere words about the possibility of change.

Rather, what is needed is transformation—the spiritual revival of individuals prepared to take a stand in everyday life. This does not happen through political pontifications or assessment of presidential speeches, but at our jobs, in our neighborhoods, and in our families. It happens at the local level; it begins in a place that is much closer than congress or the Oval Office. This very practical, uncomplicated solution is advanced by the apostle Paul, writing to the new believers in Rome when he explained to them just how change would take place, saying: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds . . .” (Romans 12:2).

How is it possible to keep from being adversely shaped and influenced—conformed to this world—without God? We are the recipients of a nearly constant influx of messages that saturate our minds with the problems besetting our nation and world. But the answer is in the next part of the admonition: Be transformed, by the renewal of your minds. Without the heart-transforming, life-giving, mine-renewing, actual power of the living God, it is impossible to dwell on anything but these problems or to affect lasting change.

So what, you may ask, is the answer to the many economic woes and social problems America is facing? And how are these truths relevant to the problems we face today?

First, and perhaps foremost, we must realize that a call back to the basics or back to anything is not possible. We are moving forward, onward into a new world. We are called to be engaged, stewards of God’s creation, and only He has the power to transform our thinking, our hearts, our lives.

Next, a change in our collective thinking is necessary. Instead of attempting to retro-fit a 21st-century America into an early 20th-century suit of clothes we have got to realize that we are living in a different world. We are not tooling down FDR Drive; we are not at the beginning of a bright new season of industry and mass communication that is anchored in the absolutes of a moral imperative or a homogeneous belief that ethical decisions matter. The world has changed. The curves ahead are hairpin turns, on all sides. We need wisdom, not prognostications.

No matter the direction, there will be personal sacrifices, but it will take more to solve America’s quandaries than dumping billions into better highways or laying our dreams at the altar of Hope. We must lay our preconceived ideas of what the future might be and renew our minds about the kind of world in which we want to live now. Instead of borrowing from the future and pretending that things will be better “someday,” why not start today? In our communities, our families, our schools, our personal lives—positive change can happen, but it must be the kind of change that works toward good, toward freedom, justice, and the founding principles of this great nation.

In the end, we must ask ourselves what sort of change is it that we desire?

Do we truly want the convenience and security of stepping up to new fangled bread lines as long as we know that there will be bread? Do we want our mortgages and granite countertops paid for by those who can really afford them? Shall we sit idly by and watch as the inheritance meant for our children is swallowed up in the balance sheets of our McMansions today? Is this the change we’ve envisioned for a future America?

Turning back on change is moot. We voted it in last November. So now that we’ve opted for it, let’s take special care to make sure that it is more than reckless change or empty rhetoric.

To wrest the rhetoric of change we must remind ourselves that only transformation of the soul can effectuate the kind of change that makes a difference. The transformed soul will take the time to make personal changes like taking the time to dialogue—to really talk with each other, to get to know neighbors and spend time fellowshipping with others within the community of faith and cultivating a sense of community outside of it.

These are things we can do, personal choices that work against the entrenched and corrosive entitlement mindset—a mindset that has been at work in the best of us, relentlessly eroding the sandy shores of this great society.

In the timeless admonition of Reinhold Niebuhr, may we seek to accept the things we cannot change and work hard to change those things that are within our ability to change peaceably. May our choices of change be made with wisdom, discernment, and daily individual compassion—change that is not reckless, founded in fear of catastrophe, or masked in ideological agenda.

We can make decisions that affect positive change in the lives of everyday people in our everyday lives—choices that reflect those values Americans hold dear, choices that are needed for us to continue to share a life together that is full of promise for a stable future and a hope that is real.

Stephanie Bennett, Ph.D., is associate professor of communication and media studies at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla., where she enjoys teaching and researching topics concerning media ecology, philosophy of communication, and the church and culture. She and her husband, Earl, make their home in Palm Springs, Fla. Dr. Bennett invites dialogue at steffasong@aol.com.