I understand for many of us, watching a generation repeatedly protesting about everything and not producing anything worthwhile but a fresh sound bite and new images for our 24-hour news cycle can be disheartening. Many are frustrated and want change; I get it. Yet if they truly desire change in their culture, they have backed themselves into a difficult predicament. They have an abundance of rhetoric without an actionable direction of real productive effort. In other words, don’t burn your community down, but rather build it up with diligent hard work seeking the good of others before yourself. Solomon wrote, “In all labor there is profit, but idle chatter leads only to poverty.” (Proverbs 14:23).
Words without actions are empty. Words without the right kind of actions exist in the same shapeless void. We can scream and yell about what we want all day every day and still have nothing. We need to invest focused exertion in fulfilling the expectation of our goals. Change requires a daily investment of action. Maybe it’s time we stop talking about what we want to see and start leading with a Godly example. Let each of us set the standard of what it looks like to roll up our sleeves and get the job done. Never forget we do this with hope and joy in our future kingdom as we love God, love one another, and our community today. “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:18).