The college I went to made a video a few years before I arrived that started by dramatically asking the question, “Can just one person change the world?”. Then, student after student shared a sentence about what they were planning on doing to make a difference in the world. I still remember seeing students with plans to translate the Bible for unreached people, to take the light of the gospel to cities around the world, to carry the hope of Jesus to the global poor, and on and on: dozens of huge plans to change the world for the better. It was a great video and it nailed the fact that if you want to do any of those really good things, Ozark Christian College is a place that will teach you how. But I saw that video and immediately started thinking about the things I could do that would impress other people if they knew about them.
I imagined a follow-up video: “Ten years ago, we asked, ‘Can one person change the world?’ Well guess what? Flint Spencer absolutely did — check it out.” And then it would cut to a clip of me preaching at Coachella or something.
Even then, as a student, I knew I was making an idol out of accomplishment. I knew I had an ambition that was more about building myself up than it was about the Kingdom, but I brushed that idea to the side. I truly convinced myself that as long as I wanted to achieve great things for Jesus, then I couldn’t possibly be doing anything wrong, could I? So, as a kid in my early 20s, I set my sights high, I dreamed big, and I imagined crowds chanting my name in gratitude after I changed the world — for Jesus, of course.
But guess what?
I turn 30 next year and the invite to preach at Coachella has not come, no one is calling me the C.S. Lewis of my generation, I didn’t start any revivals, I’ve not baptized any celebrities, I failed to start a global church-planting movement, I missed making Christianity Today’s 30 under 30 list, and I’m not being invited to the White House to spiritually advise our president any time soon.
Have I failed? Most of the things I thought I would rocket out of college and do to bring me recognition and purpose never happened. So, did I waste my 20s? How can I ensure I don’t waste my 30s? Am I disappointing Jesus by not living up to expectations of what I might accomplish in his name? Am I burying my talents in the sand by not doing great things?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m really happy with my life today. I’d choose being a good husband and dad over being on the cover of Christianity Today in a heartbeat. I love the ministry I get to do at Christ’s Church and I truly feel like I’m part of something special here. But I think we can all relate to feeling the weight of asking ourselves the question:
Am I living up to my potential?
And if you’re like me, counting down the months until you turn an age that ends in “0” forces you to ponder that question.
And then last week, I stumbled upon this quote from Gregory of Nyssa:
…we consider becoming God’s friend the only thing worthy of honor and desire. This, as I have said, is the perfection of life.
And I realized how poorly I have done at first seeking the Kingdom of God. When evaluating whether I’ve lived up to my potential, how could I have missed that the greatest potential I have is the potential to be a friend of God’s? Any life lived with him is a life that is not wasted, regardless of any other metric of accomplishment.
So, as I look back at my 20s and forwards to my 30s, the question I want to use to assess my last decade and plan for my next is not,
“What have I accomplished and what more can I accomplish?”
but rather,
“Am I becoming God’s friend?”
Because Gregory of Nyssa was right and if my sights are set on anything but friendship with God, I will miss the only accomplishment that he actually wants from me.
So can just one person change the world?
Of course.
Will I?
Don’t bet on it.
But the good news for those of us who find world-changing out of reach is that friendship with God is always within reach, and if we seek him, we will find him.
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