Love is the Movement...

Tonight at Wittenberg I was lucky enough to have been involved in an event that they call "Epic." Epic is an occasion in which the campus ministries of Wittenberg and the Springfield community are all able to converge into an event that enables us to hear a speaker, share Gods word, and also worship Him in the process. Tonight in particular was a very special time from the moment the first song was played. In fact, the first song that was played was so powerful and touching for me that I decided that I needed to write a blog about it. This song that was performed is by Switchfoot and is appropriately titled, "Love is the Movement." Given that I had just written a blog the day before about the importance of love and how it can potentially spur a change within each and every one of us, I was particularly moved by this musical selection. The lyrics look something like this;

Love is a movement
Love is a revolution
This is redemption
We don't have to slow back down

The stars are alive
They dance to the music
Of the deepest emotion
And all of the world
Is singing in time
As the heavens are caving in
Mysterious ways
Why God gave His life
To put motion inside my soul

It's bigger than cold religion
It's bigger than life

We're starting now 
We don't have to slow back down

This is a revolution, This is a revolution...

After hearing this song I was inspired and galvanized that there was in fact a movement taking place, and I could feel it.  Now, when I talk of a movement I'm not talking of the fight for American independence, the trial and struggle for the equal rights of men and women of color, or the Proletariat Revolution synonymous with the Communist revolution.  This is a movement that is unseen and unheard, but a movement that will be felt. Call me senseless or foolish, but I firmly believe that love can essentially be the influence that provokes a worldwide change in our hearts.  Just as a key can ignite the engine to a car, a simple button can be the catalyst for most electronics, or in my own life, food can be the stimulant that gives my body energy, love has the potential to have the same opportunity to become an agent of change that can stimulates or precipitate a reaction, development, or change. You see, the biggest issues in our hearts is our own hearts.  We are conditioned as a culture to accept the views of the world.  We are subconsciously forced to accept the viewpoint that the world is too big, and we are too minute to really be able to have a profound impact upon the human diaspora.  In essence, we defeat ourselves before we're even presented with a challenge. We tell ourselves that there are too many problems, what can one person do, right? Let's go through some harrowing statistics that give many of these naysayers a lot of credit.

Number of children in the world

-2.2 billion

Number in poverty

-1 billion (every second child)

For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

-640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)

-400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)

-270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

Children out of education worldwide

-121 million

Survival for children worldwide,

-10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)

-1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
Health of children worldwide,

-2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized

-15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom) State of the World’s Children, 2005, UNICEF

Once again, given these statistics, how many people feel that they can make a significant impact upon a world that has such severe and extreme conditions for others? Well, let me give you a few example of how one person, when faced with odds that many would deem impossible, chose to make a difference. Then again, as the quote goes, "the worlds greatest feats were accomplished by those not smart enough to understand they were impossible."  Would Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., have made the choices take the burden of hundreds and thousands of African-Americans if he understood the probability of the situation? Would Mother Teresa, or Nelson Mandela, have encumbered the same weight had they truly thought and comprehended the low probabilities of the causes they chose to undertake?  Instead, these men and women chose to step forth and do what they could with what they could.  In my opinion, Jesus represents the pinnacle of human achievement, as he was able to preach and minister to the lowliest of people and build the largest following the world has ever known.  To the world, Jesus was one man with a mission, and through that mission he was able to accomplish more than any of us could ever fathom.  The important part of this story, is what was the weapon that Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa used?  They chose to wield the weapons of peace and love, than the ammunitions of hate and malevolence that is interchangeable with the natural instincts of the world.  Why can't we?

There is a really neat and simple quote that I was exposed to that is actually very enlightening once you think about it.  The quote, excuse my paraphrasing goes something like, "It takes a spark to start a wildfire."  Think about this simple quote for a second.  A forest fire, an occurrence that can potentially devastate over 7 million acres of land per year can conceivably be started by something as small as a spark.  Call me crazy, call me a lunatic, call me a dreamer, but I cannot help but be convinced that we are that spark.  There is a verse in the Beatitudes if Matthew, in which Jesus says that we should let our, "light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven."-Matthew 5:16. We are that light, love is our tool, this is our movement!  Barack Obama, in his unprecedented campaign to become the first African-American president in the history of the United States of America coined the term "Yes We Can." In the same fashion, we can make the same improbable  change within the world as long as we believe that we have the power in ourselves to.  When I went to Los Angeles, I was introduced to the theory that was appropriately titled, "The bucket theory."  This theory basically stated that every person should approach the issue of change with a bucket instead of some other unlikely goal with the fact that we can fill the bucket, and still make change, no matter how small or diminutive.  This theory is very pragmatic because think of it, if one person were to take a bucket into the Sahara desert, and if one million people took a bucket into the Sahara desert, think of the imprint that could possibly be left?  To go along with this sentiment, and give a real life (almost) example, there is a movie that parallels these same actions.  Pay it Forward is a movie in which a young boy, Trevor for his project decides that he is going to start a movement in which he will "pay it forward."  By doing this, he is essentially doing good deeds for others with the expectation that these recipients of this good deed will pass it forward to others.  This movement was started by the small actions of one young boy, and the future implications are known only to God.  This is an example of one spark, one bucket, and essentially one movement being started by the small good deeds of a young boy.  Mother Teresa once echoed the power of these actions in the quote, "We can do no great things, only small things with great love."

Ladies and Gentlemen, whoever is reading this, our time is not tomorrow, it is not in a few year, our time is today, this moment, right now!  There is a song made by Blessid Union of Souls that in a way is a microcosm of my dream of how profound and direct pure love can be upon our culture.  

I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

I believe that love is the answer

I believe that love will find the way

We are the ones we've been waiting for.  We represent the movement that this world so badly needs right now.  We search for a leader to lead us, we search for a movement to move us.  But rest assured, that movement is already present, and that leader resides in each and every one of us.  We have the power and the capacity within each one of us to provide that spark that can restructure and transform not only ourselves but the world.  I'm sorry again, maybe I'm crazy, but I was inspired today.  Love is the movement, and it is up to us to take it upon us to spread the ideals that I mentioned in the blog before this one.  This movement can be spread by something as simple as a smile, a genuine "how are you?" or a simple act of random kindness.  Unlike many resources, love cannot be contained, it cannot be controlled, and it can be given in infinite amounts.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. summed up this sentiment when he exclaimed that, "Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it."  As it says in 1 Corinthians, "[love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes," and most importantly, "always perseveres."