October 20, 2012                   John W             John W's previous articles

The beginning of all reform must be in ourselves

As we pray and hope and lobby for reform in the Church, there's a beautiful reflection from God Calling (Oct 16) that will keep our feet on the ground as our hearts aim at Heaven:

The beginning of all reform must be in yourselves.
However restricted your circumstances,
you can always turn to yourselves,
and seeing something not in order there,
seek to right that.

Gandhi practised this philosophy. Whenever he couldn't make progress in improving the world around him (because of opposition etc) he would look into his own heart and own life for something that could be improved there....and such interior improvement would open a door in the external world that had previously been closed.  c.f. Number 1 in this article

A Gandhi story (from this article)

One of my new songs is inspired by the work of Gandhi.  Gandhi was the guy who said, 'be the change you want to see in the world.' I've read his autobiography and there is a really cool story in it.  An Indian woman came to Gandhi with her son and said, 'he won't listen to me-I keep telling him sugar is bad.  Can you tell him?' And Gandhi said, 'come back tomorrow.'  So the woman and her son went back the next day and Gandhi said to the boy, 'sugar is bad for you'. The woman asked why Gandhi couldn't have told them that in the first place to which Gandhi replied, 'because I had to stop eating sugar myself first.' Gandhi  made sure he was the change he wanted to see in the world 

See the above God Calling link for putting this whole idea in the context of prayer - really beautiful

See also the many "Praise" books by Merlin Carothers on the theme of praise opening shut doors - see his website Foundation of Praise