Viva La Revolution II

I was watching the news one morning and was listening to a young man describe the horrors he had seen while in Syria. The people have begun a revolution seeking freedom. As I sat there listening, he told of a comment his friend made in reference to the president of the country. His friend stated that "Satan would be better in his place". I was so struck by the comment that I went back days later to verify that I had heard him correctly. Now, I am not sure if he really believes in Satan or not, and I really did not think that the young man wanted him in charge of Syria. It seems to me what he was saying was that even someone as horrible as Satan, would be better than the president that they have now. How bad must the conditions be to say that? I cannot even imagine. That to me sounds like a man who has seen much suffering, and when hope for normal avenues of conflict resolution fail we are left with revolution. Now this is not a discourse on Syria, but on revolution. I like the word. Not really the "violent upheaval," but more the "revolving around to come back to a single point." As I was looking at the definitions today, I was struck how the two definitions play on each other. We use revolution to describe how governments are overthrown. Many times the "revolution" is due to injustice, inequality or plain old terror. The only problem with that kind of revolution is that it is only a "revolution" to the exact same place with different people playing the lead role. They wind up trading one repressive regime for another. Change is good, and history has shown that revolution is sometimes needed. How though do we keep the revolution from becoming just what we were fighting against? I watched a baptism today of five students, and I was again reminded of revolution. When Jesus came to this earth, He was a revolutionary. Although His intention was not to be the violent upheaval of a government, but a revolutionary change in how we relate to God and each other. These kids are revolutionary. I look forward to their growth, change and maturing into leaders. Those who will take this revolution of loving God with all their heart, mind, soul, strength and loving their neighbors as much as they love themselves further than ever before. The great thing about this revolution is that if they come back to the start, all they are going to find is Jesus. The same one yesterday, today and forever.