IF YOU DON'T DO SOMETHING, NOTHING WILL CHANGE... NOTHING

This is about change for your life, but it is ALSO about what it takes to change a broken culture.  You can't legislate real change.  You can't mandate change. We can make real lasting cultural change.  Those who think it takes generations don't understand, it can be done in a few years IF we understand the process.  I heard this today.  The process of Change that actually works.

From least effective to most effective, here's how change happens:

#5 CHANGING BEHAVIOR  Anyone can change behavior for a while.  Pharisees do this all the time.  That's what laws try to do. It's why the Gun laws are so foolish.  Outlaw guns and you have behavior change until it become meaningless. Unless a person is changed they will kill you with a hammer, a club, a knife, an axe, or just beat you to death.  Behavior change changes nothing.  It has to come deeper.

#4 CHANGING ENVIRONMENT. LOCATION.  This is what happens when you try to change people with forced busing as was tried during the 70s;   Nothing changed.  You will have a Beverly Hillbillies situation if you try to change people by placing them in nicer environs.  IF the heart hasn't changed it will reflect their hearts soon enough.  It's critical to understand that sprucing a place up or giving someone a really nice place to live won't do a thing if they are the same inside.

These external efforts always fail.  It's what government has tried to do again and again. That's what the projects were supposed to be all about.  That's what Section 8 was all about.  Give people a chance to change locations and they will do better.  Not if the inside hasn't changed.

For real change to take place we must be changed from the inside out.

#3 ABILITIES.. WHAT CAN YOU DO?  Who you are is made up of your ability, skill.  It's not enough to have impartation which is hearing about something, you must have understanding at the skill level.  It's like knowing all about flying an airplane in theory, but never having flown.  It's all imparting knowledge until you do it.  Then it becomes understanding.  Theory VS Practice.  Too much information, not enough understanding the old song says. It's true.  A person to change must have mastery of skills and abilities that help him or her define themselves as a person.  Without that they are undefined and cannot change.  This most of the time comes from within and people's desires drive them to excellence.

#2 CORE BELIEFS... CORE VALUES  What do I believe as true.  This is where the rubber begins to meet the road. You can have a skilled person, disciplined in behavior and living in a good location and yet have a person who is unable to make progress because they believe lies.  This is where it become essential.  The lies we take in will put us in chains.  There are cultural lies, political lies, media lies and yes, theological lies.  Some are told to us by our parents.  It's hard to avoid.  So we agree with them because its acceptable to do so.  UNLESS a person's core beliefs and values change they will not change.  They will remain stuck. The search for core values is essential for every human being, and whatever you decide is true will shape you.  You will become what you believe.  Show me your life and I can tell you much about what you believe is true.

#1  IDENTITY... WHO AM I?  Once a person has moved thru the process of the other four steps to change the last one is the greatest hurdle.  Who am I, why am I here is the quintessential question all of us must answer.  The lower you set this bar, the less likely you will break out of your situation.  Theologically the answer is eternal.  Its the here and now that gets to be the problem. Who or what do you most identify yourself to or with.  IF that is a negative model, you wont' make it.  This last hurdle can stop you dead in your tracks. 

IF you think about the gang-bangers who we are all so concerned about, the transformation needed to get them to change for the better is much more than behavior and environment... as important as that can be as a first step.  It's critical to help them develop skill (not education), a new set of core values that reflects what they hope to become and re identification with something different from what brought them there.

The broken culture we have in the USA, White Red Black and Brown is directly as the result of a failure of people break away from what has trapped them.  You want someone out of poverty, out of gangs, out of drugs, out of bad relationships, out of a cycle of dysfunction?  Then start down the pathway to change.  There is no other hope.  It's not just about Jesus, that's a start. I have met many wonderful saints of God TRAPPED in a life they want to break free from, but one of these is holding them captive.  Break FREE!!