You are Changing the World: Whether You Like it or Not
by David LaMotte
Download the free You Are Changing the World Study Guide for Churches
In You are Changing the World: Whether You Like It or Not, David LaMotte challenges some deeply held, though seldom examined, ideas about how large societal changes happen and what our own roles in those changes can and should be.
Drawing on stories from his own work and interviews with others in Guatemala, India, South Africa, Australia, Palestine, Bosnia, and the United States, LaMotte methodically challenges narratives that keep us immobile in the face of problems that confront communities, nations, and the world. You Are Changing The World is challenging, encouraging and inspiring. In an accessible, story-based style, LaMotte looks at questions of daily vocation, helping us discern both our potential to have an impact and how to get started. Anyone who wants to live a life that matters will find a meaningful, potentially world-changing lesson.
"I have known David for over three decades, and he has always exuded empathy, justice, and peace, not built on a shallow naiveté but upon a deeply nuanced, complex, and hopeful understanding of human motivations and possibilities. In You are Changing the World David challenges us to see complexity and nuance in the movements of peace, not as deterrents to shy away from and reject, but as gifts to move towards and embrace. What I love about this book is that he also does not just push us to look outward and address things to do but to examine our personal motivations and capacities for who we can become. Ever hopeful and always inspiring, David, once again, calls us all into this personal and global endeavor of peace in a way that makes it all seems possible." — Bruce Reyes-Chow; author of In Defense of Kindness
“I’ve read this book twice now, and here’s what I can tell you: it’s the kind of book that you’ll want to keep and reread because it rings so true and touches you so deeply.”
- Brian McLaren, author and speaker
"David LaMotte is a very good partner in this important work, both for our world and for the human soul."
- Richard Rohr, Center for Action and Contemplation
"LaMotte captures the rhythm and artistry that exist in efforts to change the world for the better."
- Bishop William J. Barber II, Founding Director, Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School
"This book serves as an antidote to the hopelessness so many of us feel about our world today."
- Kathleen Norris, author and poet