What It Means to Be a Change Agent

This was passed on to me by Fr. Paul W., with whom I live when I'm in Colorado Springs. It's written from a secular context by Dave Jamieson, a professor at Pepperdine, but fits well the religious one with some modifications which I've added after the ones Jamieson coined. After all, the heart of ministry is calling people to commit to the following of Christ as a member of His Church! That requires change in us all.

You will always be in the process of development.
You will find yourself often being alone and feeling marginal.
You will find yourself experiencing higher and higher levels of resistance.
You will get more and more in touch with what it means to move in and move out.
You will need to be caring and confrontive; guiding and directive.
You will keep trying to see situations with different eyes.
Edges of your patience will be pushed (nothing moves fast enough).
You will know rejection intimately.
You will constantly be revisiting your own values.
You will live with the tension between blending and differentiating with the client.
You will struggle between doing what the client needs and what you need.
Your honesty with yourself will enable you to relate to others.
You will truly be yourself only when you know yourself.
Your greatest joy will be what you can do for others, so they can do for themselves.
You will come to understand that we must care for ourselves, because no one else really can.

My version:
You will always be in the process of conversion.

You will find yourself often being alone and feeling marginal - but you're not alone, since Jesus promised to be with us always. On the other hand, you don't just feel marginal, you are marginal, like Him.

You will find yourself experiencing higher and higher levels of resistance from the Evil One, if the change you're encouraging points people towards Jesus.

You will get more and more in touch with what it means to move in when people need help and move out of the way when they don't.

You will need to be caring and confrontive; guiding and directive - and if you really love the other with Christ's love, it will be obvious which is needed.

You will keep trying to see situations with different eyes because you know your limited vision.

Edges of your patience will be pushed (nothing moves fast enough). But of course, you're not the Savior, are you?

You will know rejection intimately, just like the prophets of old.

You will constantly be revisiting your own values to make sure you've not abandoned Jesus' values for cheap and convenient imitations.

You will live with the tension between the desire to fit in comfortably with the world and the call to live as a sign to a fallen world.

You will struggle between doing what your brother or sister needs and what you need. But there are alternatives to selfishness and co-dependence, and you are your brother or sister's keeper.

Your honesty with yourself will enable you to relate to others. Humility is the foundation of lasting relationships.

You will truly be yourself only when you know yourself in Christ.

Your greatest joy will be what you can do for others to help them encounter Christ, so they can know and follow Him themselves.

You will come to understand that we must care for ourselves as good stewards of the life God has given us, and that in itself gives honor to God.