Real Change

It was a hectic Thursday night at the Northside Adolescent Unit where I used to work as a counselor.  We were short on staff with a full unit of troubled kids. I was involved with two take downs and all three time out rooms were full.  It was very stressful.  But, the biggest problem of the dreadful evening was Darren.

If you were to meet Darren you would think, “Wow, what a nice kid.  What is he doing in a place like this?”  And in many ways he was a very pleasant young man. He was fifteen years old, a bright smile and a good sense of humor.   However, Darren was obsessed with the Mafia.  He combed his hair like the gang leaders of the twenties and had been involved in multiple “Mafia” type crimes around his school and community.  He was eventually court ordered to our facility.

I stood at the door of the Time Out room. Darren sat slumped in the corner, head in his hands crying.  He had become very violent on the unit and after multiple commands to walk to the time out room we had to take him in a struggle.

“What are you thinking about Darren?” I asked him.

He looked at me with his tear stained face and replied, “I feel so lost.”

That was in June of 1992 and his words have echoed in my mind ever since.  $500 a day plus doctor bills and medication and there was still no help for Darren.  He truly was lost.  The therapists were working to change his mind, the medication was working to change him chemically, but there was nothing that could change his heart.  He needed the Lord Jesus in His life and until that happened, he would remain lost.
There are so many ways we try to change people.  Millions and millions of dollars a year are spent trying to change people.  Advancements in medicine, changes in education, and social reform are all aimed at changing a hurting people both here in the US and abroad.  I am not a cynic.  I applaud the many people who commit their time to making life better for the masses who need help.  The problem is that only a changed heart with Christ as resident King brings real, long lasting change to individuals, communities, and nations.
Bruce Olson was a 19 year-old boy who left home against his parents wishes to go to the jungles to evangelize a murderous tribe of Indians.  He suffered capture, disease, terror, loneliness, and torture. Through a long series of events, he began living with the Motilone tribe of Indians.  He taught them health measures, agricultural techniques, the value of preserving their heritage and translated the Bible into their language.  Since then, Bruce Olson has spoken before the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and the personal friend of four presidents of Columbia.  In his biography, Bruchko, Olson writes,
“The most important thing I can say to those who want to help people is this:  They will not be helped very much unless they find purpose in life through Jesus Christ.  Without Him, whatever development takes place always will be twisted or corrupted.  It will embitter those who try to hold it together, and those who don’t care about it will be ruined by apathy and alienation.  But with Jesus, there can be real change.  Not just change by and by.  Real change, now, with visible power. He is the source of all change.” ( Bruchko  p. 162 ) [1]

As the Lord brings people into our lives and our church to help, let’s remember that real change is change where the Lord Jesus gives hope and purpose.  Are you inviting people to church?  Please begin this week.  Do you know how to present the gospel?  Learn how to share your faith.  Let’s be a people and a church of real change, change found in Him.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone.  The new has come.”  2 Corinthians 5:17

[1] – Olson, Bruce  Bruchko, Creation House, 1983

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