We want our change like a tax refund- high profit, low effort

I imagine that the thought process of myself is like a railway system. Each thought is like a train depot, and each train is the neuron that connects the thoughts. The passengers are the links between my thoughts. Instead of a system of train tracks, there is a series of magic portals. A train will be at one depot and then all of a sudden *POOF* it's at another one, and then *POOF* it's somewhere else now with a series of new thoughts that are all somehow linked together. You think I'm brilliant now? Wait til I get going! (I've used that hyperlink idea before, but it's so funny that it deserves a sequel)

My best bud Charlie (I'm totally playing up the level of our friendship in hopes that he'll notice me) and I were talking about the child abuse statistics of Marquette County this morning, and how he's going to present that as a challenge to the pastors and people at tonight's FireUp: Encounter service. Having worked with abused and neglected kids for over four years, I know first hand a taste of the dire need that population has. The church has surely made an impact- but things are getting worse, not better, and so Charlie feels the need to shake the tree a little bit.

When I got home, I started thinking about the concept of child abuse/neglect as a solvable problem and wondered if it is. I mean, it's such a multi-faceted issue. You have to take into account macro-level factors like unemployment rates and cost of living. Then you factor in the mezzo-level stuff- open or isolated community, direct support network, family relationships. Finally, it comes down to each individual person and their issues- mental health, physical, emotional, spiritual. Oh, and don't forget the unique challenges that come from not only raising a child- but raising that specific child.

So right now, I can't think of a solution that could completely eliminate child abuse and neglect. We can fight it, combat it, knock it down a little bit. But it's a systemic issue that isn't going to change right this second.

Then I started thinking about the concept of change in general. And how it is too big. Too wide. Too broad. Too quick.

One of my favorite anecdotal stories is the one where the guy throws the starfish back into the ocean. I hyperlinked it so that you didn't have to suffer through my inevitable slaughtering of the story. Just know that it's a huge keystone in my own personal philosophy of life.

Then I started thinking about Jesus and His life on Earth. And I realized something else- that not even the life of Jesus changed the whole world. Let that idea sink in a little bit: Not even the life of Jesus changed the whole world.

Now I don't mean that in a blasphemous way at all- obviously Jesus' time on Earth has had an enormous impact. But did the whole world get saved when He was kicking it in Jerusalem? Did all the Christian churches that have ever existed suddenly spring up as He walked around in Nazareth? No. And I'm pretty sure that Jesus would agree with me.

After all, didn't He leave it to His disciples to go out into all the world and preach the Gospel? Isn't that the reason the Holy Spirit came to Earth- to assist with the change process? Jesus gave sermons to multitudes and masses- but the most significant changes came in his interaction with individuals. If memory serves, most of the miracles Jesus performed were of a one-on-one variety. True, many times those miracles were an instantaneous change of their own right- instantly healed, instantly well, instantly delivered- but even those miracles served the worldwide societal change of turning the hearts of nations back to the Father in a gradual, life by life fashion.

And it makes sense, really. Think about the idea of massive change, or widespread change- it can be clumsy, unwieldy, and even be met with resistance. We want change- but when it comes, we often fight it. So change has to be a slow process. It's like building up an immunity to a poison...say, Iocaine Powder (second Princess Bride reference- I am literally on a roll right now). You don't just ingest a bunch of it at once- you take it in, bit by bit, until your body forgets that the odorless/tasteless/instantly dissolving in liquid substance that you just flavored your coffee with is actually among the most deadliest poisons known to man.

But we don't always want to wait for things to change. Especially right now, we live in a world where people want change so badly that they are literally trading their lives for it. And I don't mean to belittle the enormity of their sacrifice, nor say that it is a vain effort. Sometimes those things need to happen for change to happen.

But I look at our country, and how the government works to enact policies that define so much of the way that our lives progress. A new party comes into power, makes its policies, and basically waits for them to fail. Because we want that change you promised, we want it now- and obviously your policy isn't working, so it needs to go and you need to go as well.

That's why I wouldn't be surprised in the least if Barack Obama is a one-term president. I'm not trying to debate whether or not he should be- but I can definitely see it. He campaigned on the back of one idea- change. He promised change. Widespread change. Sweeping change.

And many people fell for it. What were they thinking? Did they think that Obama would be able to magically make all sorts of changes happen right away? And did they think that those changes that he did make would just all of a sudden happen? Again, I'm not speaking to his qualities as a Commander-in-Chief, but I'm speaking more to the expectations I feel that people had about his presidency before it even started (which in all fairness were largely fueled by the campaign promises that he made).

We can't sit around and wait for government programs and policies to be the change that we want to be in the world. That's like sitting around and watching the glaciers slowly move across the continent, except that sometimes a glacier will be suddenly *POOFED* away and replaced by a newer, shinier glacier that is surely just waiting its turn in the teleportation line.

I know that there are services and programs that do good things. I don't want to take away from them and their efforts. Again, as with my thoughts on organized religion, there are good things being done by places like a Teaching Family Homes or a Department of Human Services. There are worthy causes promoting societal change that are worthy to be invested in. But we have to be people willing to enact change in our own personal realm of influence. We have to understand that change is a process. And we have to be willing to have the patience to see that change through until the end.