5 Ways to Change the World From Hidden Places

I don’t wake up thinking of ways to change the world when the 5-year-old pounds on the bedroom door at a quarter ‘til six. Mostly, I count the hours since the baby last stirred for a feeding and realize I have slept exactly 32 minutes since the fifth feeding of the night.

Maybe you don’t have little people calling you at all hours of the day and night, but there are quiet places of difficult service in your life too.

I know it because we all have our hard and hidden callings – places where conjuring up ways to change the world and make some sort of eternal impact feels something like a pipe-dream.

A daily grind is wearing you thin.

You have a calling that feels more like a cubicle than a thriving ministry.

You have daily duties that call you to go lower – to do the hard and obscure work – in a cycle that seems to never end. And nobody is really cheering you on. Not that you need an audience. But in the quiet moments of your days, you admit that a little encouragement would be nice.

Whatever it looks like in your life, you start to wonder if the dreamy ideals of your youth – the hopes about making a mark on the world – were kind of just pie-in-the-sky fantasies.

Ways to Change the World

This winter has been filled with ups and downs that have challenged and shaped my faith. There were hard losses. We faced illnesses that kept our little family house-bound for weeks on end. We canceled too many plans.

There were also lessons.

I’m gleaning a few lessons about how to be the kind of woman who changes the world, even if that change is happening in a quiet little corner of a small town where life feels rather ordinary. Here are a few ways to change the world from your quiet corner as well:

1. Change the world by making plans but trusting God’s purposes.

I am a planner. I thrive on a daily schedule. Normalcy and predictability bring me peace.

I struggle when God throws a curveball – when my plans are thrown out the window.

This happened so much this winter that we actually lived with a closet full of bags packed for a weekend trip that was postponed for six straight weekends.

For six straight weeks, I left those bags packed, and when it was time to finally make the trip, I was happy to be done living with only three pairs of socks. Baby Aiden had grown into a new size of clothing, and his bag needed to be fully repacked. I forgot what I’d put in the snack bag and pulled it all out to begin again.

If you’re like me, you struggle when life calls for a change of plans. How can we be world-changers in light of plans that fall apart? Maybe the secret is this:

We learn to live with open palms: Plans in hand, but open hands lifted to the light of God’s presence as we allow him to remake our plans and shape them according to his perfect will.

Ultimately, we made our trip to visit our beloved grandparents across the state. The roads were clear. The kids were healthy, and we went in God’s perfect timing. And maybe this is the most important lesson from it all:

You will change the world when you change the atmosphere by receiving God’s detours with joy instead of angst, patience instead of frustration, and a sense of humor instead of a sense of irritation. #changetheworld #obscurity Click To Tweet

2. Stay desperate for Jesus.

I am a woman who needs Jesus.

I need him when I lose any sense of patience and snap at my kids.

When I forsake the fast to which I committed and scarf down two pieces of chocolate cake, just to satisfy my groaning false hunger.

When I realize the fruit I hoped to bear in my life has dried up with the daylilies that are shriveled outside my front door.

My personality leads me to desire perfection. I want to be the perfect follower of Christ, the perfect mom, and the perfect bearer of fruit.

My inability to be perfect in any of these areas are my reminder that Christ’s power is made perfect in my weaknesses.

If you want to change the world, show up as your actual self. Show up with your imperfections and your lack of spiritual fruit, and then press hard into Jesus, as you ask him to work through you. Your moments of greatest impact in this world will be the moments when Jesus lives through you, and this often happens in the weak places.

3. Cherish the people you love like it’s the last time every time you’re with them.

My precious grandma went to be with the Lord a few short weeks ago. As we said goodbye, and as we continued to look forward to seeing her again in heaven, I was reminded to cherish my loved ones like it’s the last time every time we’re together.

I’m reminded of the brevity of life.

What if we kept this in mind throughout our everyday moments – when the kids or the clients or the friends are driving us up the walls? What if we stopped to remember the mothers who would give anything for one more day with their little ones in their lives? How would life shift if we stopped grumbling and paused to give thanks – to cherish these moments, realizing they won’t last forever?

I imagine we would change our world by changing our attitudes toward life.

4. Never lose sight of the high calling to make God’s love known to the world.

I’m in the thick of these years of raising little ones.

You’re in the thick of something too, I know.

When we’re in the thick of it, it’s easy to forget about the high calling to make God’s love known to the world.

I’ve been reading books about followers who were sold out for this calling: Jim Elliot, Elisabeth Elliot, Rachel Saint, William Cameron Townsend, and more.

What if you took a few minutes each day to remind yourself of the importance of sharing the gospel with the world? What if you made up your mind to be more intentional about telling others about the hope we have in Jesus? This kind of living would certainly change the world around you, as you offer the greatest gift of salvation through Christ to those who need it.

5. Change the world by embracing discipline as a gift instead of a burden

This has been a winter of delving into spiritual disciplines in my life.

It’s easy to view disciplines as uncomfortable boundaries or unpleasant obligations. But time and experience are teaching me that discipline is a gift.

Want to break free from some certain comfort-sin? Spend a week fasting from it, and you will put your flesh in its rightful place. You will find a gateway to freedom through discipline.

Want to encounter Jesus in deeper ways? Make it a priority to spend fifteen minutes with him every morning. He will draw near to you as you draw near to him.

Want to get in shape? Get to the gym or hit the road. Make up your mind to live with discipline, and what awaits you on the other side will look more like freedom than you ever imagined.

And when you are free, you are more ready than ever to make a mark on this world.

I am tired all day after the 6 a.m. wake-up. However, even in my fatigue, something is shifting inside me – an awakening. And it feels like this awakening might just hold the power to change somebody’s world.

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