This summer I interned with Flourishing Future, a nonprofit in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia’s capital city. This organization operates a community center in the city’s slums. One day I was driving through the slums with some of the staff to visit one of the families they help. While we were driving, someone began to explain to me that the Mongolian government was starting to pay more attention to the poor conditions in the slums. They told me that the slums would probably cease to exist in the next 10 to 20 years due to improvements made by new government initiatives.

SELF-CENTERED DREAMS

It was good news that the government appeared to be giving more attention to the people who lived in the slums, but for some reason I was disappointed. I was surprised by my reaction because it felt so out of place. As I thought about it, I realized I was sad because I wanted the slums to exist so that I could live a radical life helping poor people. I wanted there to be slums so that I could feel needed and so I could do something meaningful and significant with my life. How could I have the radical life I wanted if there were no slums?  It was a sobering moment that forced me to face some of the twisted motivations behind my dreams to change the world.

It is not a bad thing to want to change the world. It would be wrong to look at the poverty and injustice in the world and to carry on indifferently, pursuing self-centered dreams rather than leveraging our resources for the sake of those who suffer. However, it is absolutely critical that we ask ourselves why. Selfish ambition has a way of sneaking in unnoticed into even our most noble dreams. Why do you want to change the world? Who is it for?

MOTIVES FOR CHANGING THE WORLD 

I think Will Fowler of the Social Good Network blog has a good read on our generation.

In one of his blog posts he gives the following tip for organizations that are trying to understand how to get millennials to give their money to social causes: “Thank them publicly. Shower them with praise. Tag them so everyone knows how great they are for giving and sharing. Millennials have been getting trophies just for participating in things since they were kids.”

DC Comics comes right out and says it in a video promotion entitled “We Can Be Heroes”: “You are needed … thousands of children are struggling to stay alive … one small act can make you a hero.”  I am so thankful that our generation cares about global injustice and that companies like DC are using their platforms to do something about it. But if the people we help are just the means to our own ends, we are perpetuating the exploitation and injustice that we seek to fight. When our motivation for helping others has more to do with our personal gain than it does with the flourishing of other human beings, we are not acting out of compassion. Compassion means to suffer with.

So if you dream of changing the world, this is what I would say to you: Go for it! Change the world! Spend yourself for the sick and the oppressed! But do not do it to become a superhero. Instead, do it so the world will know the compassionate heart of a God who is making all things new.