you've been called to change the world

Every once in a while someone asks you to dream big; to answer a question concerning what you would do if there were nothing to hold you back: finances, time, resources were not an issue. Sometimes they phrase the question just a little bit different and ask what would you try if success were guaranteed.  There would probably be a lot of differences to our answers, and a lot of similarities. Some of the answers would certainly be self-serving, and some answers would show a deep concern for others.

Stephan Bauman, in his book "Possible: A Blueprint for Changing How We Change the World" (Multnomah, 2015), asks us to look at a similar question: how can I change the world? What might I do to make someone's world a better place a better place to be?

And he asks us to find an answer that will truly make a difference. Not just for today and tomorrow, but for generations to come. Something that might not be easy or convenient, but that will truly work. Bauman understands that people mean well, but sometimes efforts are reduced to a slogan.  He rightly points out that sometimes we want to take the easy way out.

But what would happen if we didn't worry about easy and looked at what would make a difference, what if we didn't worry about maintaining the status quo, and focused on finding the truth.  What happens when we focus on an single goal, and direct all our energies towards that goal?  What is possible when we set our hearts and our minds towards it.

So POSSIBLE asks us to look at how to change the world.  Much of the world's wealth is in America, much of the world's poverty is in the majority world. Americans could change the face of the world today if all it took were writing a check, but eventually the checks stop and the poverty returns. We need to be willing to think outside the box, and sometimes step out, with a really big step, in faith.  History of full of people thinking 'what if?' and then going on to do the impossible, because they dared to imagine.

Bauman asks us to consider what is possible and then be willing to take that first step out of our comfort zone in order to make a difference.  But in a sense it's not Bauman asking, it's not the book itself that gets us to dream big; its God calling us to join him on His mission, and to do that sometimes we have to ask what is possible, if only….

This book is a great reminder that "impossible"  is not a part of God's vocabulary, and shouldn't be part of ours either.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my review. I was not required to write a positive review.

4/5