Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing themselves. ― Leo Tolstoy.
As always with an out-there misfit mystic like Tolstoy, there is a plenty to ponder in the quote above. There is a quintessential truth in his wisdom no matter where, when, or who receives it.
On the back of my book, The Quest for a Humble Heart…, due to be published on Amazon in July 2023, is a header about the ultimate mode of change that comes from fully engaged radically inclusive spirituality:
This is my shtick and the predominant driving force in my writing. I believe that a changed heart is really the name of the game, the central aim of the spiritual life. For when the heart gets changed, we become remade people. When that occurs, we perceive the world with brand spanking new eyes, and our way of being in the world gets similarly completely transformed.
Some of my sober booze-hound friend like to say, “Nothing changes if nothing changes.” These are folks who individually and collectively epitomize just how profound personal change can be when inclusive spiritual tools get applied to hitherto broken lives. When you’ve well and truly been to the bottom of the well, change becomes not just a good idea, but a life or death essential.
Of course, not everyone has to reach the rock-bottom levels of these desperado comrades of mine to have an innate desire for deep-rooted change. I’ve learned that we are born with this desire. Almost everyone eventually arrives at the place in the beautiful but broken world where this strange—and yes, scary—desire for fundamental change emerges from somewhere deep within our soul. We may resist it, but when it takes hold, we can never really entirely shake it off. It is always there in our deep spiritual consciousness urging us to take the leap, begin the new walk toward inner change and an entirely new life.
Barack Obama said:
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.
Change begins within. It is a call from no less than the living God, and there is no stage in our transformation where we self-manage the desired change. Rather, the selfsame Spirit, who is the source of the desire, guides our every step along the way. In this sense, spiritual change is a call to less self-sufficiency, and more, much more, God-sufficiency! We really need to learn the timeless lesson of, “Let Go, and Let God.”
Trying to control all the externals in our life is an impossible task. This ego-driven human trait is very often the unseen core of much of our angst and frustration with ourselves and the world we see around us. As adults, we set up little invisible power structures in which we are the reigning monarchs. This rarely ends well, particularly when the rest of the world, including close family, simply refuse to comply with our incessant need for control of everything and everyone.
Desire for change is part of our makeup, something mysteriously embedded in our hearts. When the time is right, we just need to reach for it through spiritual practice and miraculously the living God begins our inside-out makeover. Step out easy comrades, go with the flow. God, who is love and compassion and the ultimate change agent, has got this! Change: It’s an inside job.