Thermometer or Thermostat: which are you?

I have been reading sermons by Rev. Martin Luther King in a book entitled The Strength to Love. Powerful sermons that come out of the turbulence of the 60's when African-American folks were struggling for racial and every other kind of equality in America. In one of his sermons King asks the question, "Are you a thermometer or a thermostat?" Do you just record temperature or do you set it?

I like that comparison. Do I just reflect the attitudes around me or do I set the tone? Paul writes that we are not to be thermometers. Yes, he writes that in Romans 12:1-2. You can read it for yourself. We are to be thermostats for the world, setting the attitudes that Christ calls us to display. We are to be transformed by Christ so that we are the light for the world, showing the world the best way to be and to go.

We are to be hopeful in the midst of pessimism. We are to announce life in the midst of death. We are to bind up the wounds of the broken while the world would just as soon throw them away.

Thermostats control the atmosphere. Christians control the atmosphere by the way they serve and love, not dominate. They create an environment for abundant life for all people in the name of Christ. Christians are called to bring Christ into the world in word and deed. Christians are called to stand for truth and justice for the sake of Christ.

So the question for me and for all of us: Which are we? Thermometer or thermostat?

Yours in Christ,
George