Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Join The Movement

The truth is, all anyone can do is to join the movement, no one can actually start one. At least, not on purpose anyway.

If you look back over history, at religion, politics, and the arts you find numerous movements which impacted the culture and society. Most of them, if not all, were not originally designed to be movements, they were simply the spontaneous, synergistic developments which came about because the words, or the actions, or the combined societal zeitgeist converged to bring about a sudden, sweeping change within the culture.

Most of the time, whenever you hear someone say, "I want to start a movement" you can bet on one thing: They will not start a movement.

They might start a business, or a trend, or a temporary ripple within a small segment or subculture, but the rest of the world will hardly notice.

When Luther nailed his treatise to the door, he was not attempting to start a movement. He was hoping to change the way people practiced their faith.

When Jackson Pollock dribbled paint on the canvas and created art without a brush, he was not attempting to start a movement. He was trying to end years of frustration with his own artistic expression and scratch an itch that existing methods of art couldn't touch.

When Jesus walked to the cross, he was not attempting to start a movement. He was attempting to please the Father and to demonstrate to his disciples what love really was.

Did these men inspire movements? Yes. Did they start out with the plan to create a movement? No. Their focus was simply to do what they were born to do. The movement was a byproduct of their obedience to their own inner desire to create, to educate, and to demonstrate the beauty and the truth that only they could see at the moment.

So, if you're planning to start a movement, here's my advice: Don't.

Instead, just be who God made you to be and pursue that calling with everything inside of you.

Your destiny is to run the race that has been laid out before you. Don't miss your chance to be yourself.

-kg

5 comments:

Bar L. said...

Hi Keith,

Don't know if you remember me or not, its been a long time since we communicated (I'm in South Orange County and almost went to your house church once.....)

Anyhow, unbeknownst to me your emails have been going to my spam folder which I "just happened to check" today. I read about the art show at The Lab on Sat. night. I may go. I will say hello to you if I do.

I just readded you to my email and blog so I won't lose track of you again!!

Bar L. said...

oh, here is my blog address for the blog you probably know me by:

http://barbara007.typepad.com/prodigal_daughter2/

Julie said...

Thank you - I needed to hear that today.

Julie.

crazy train said...

rev giles,
as you know i am a big fan of yours, and a supporter of your writing. i like the take you have on things. i do have to ask you about this latest blog post. Jesus did not mean to start a movement?
what is that all about? is this a statement meant to provoke, or this what you believe?
why did he gather disciples and send them out into the world? where does the great commission play into all of this?
if what you state is true, then you are telling us that Christ's mission was complete upon his death, that his resurrection is an after thought,that the gifting of tongues and miracles bestowed upon the apostles in acts was superfluous, and what then was the purpose of paul? was paul's entire mission a construct?
i am greatly confused by this one, rev, can you please clarify?
chas

Keith Giles said...

Chas - sorry to confuse you. I think my post is meant to communicate that if our focus is to create some great movement then our focus is wrong.

Yes, all of these men did inspire movements, but was that their single focus? I would argue no.

With Jesus it's tough since He obviously did intend to build the Church, and by definition that is a movement of sorts, but His ultimate aim was to advance the Kingdom of God -- which was already here and which continues to this day, and which will continue into Eternity.

So, Jesus didn't start something new, he simply obeyed the Father and allowed us all access the Kingdom of God (which is Eternal).

Is the Kingdom of God a movement? I would say no. It's reality itself.

-kg