Internal Shift

I've been in Kenya for the past two days, going on three, facilitating a debrief for team Kenya and team Uganda. It's interesting to hear the hearts and the occasional frustrations at the current state of things. Particularly, frustrations with personal changes on this spiritual journey. As I listened to reflections and self-analysises of these young adults, I was brought to a revelation in something that I had read earlier in the day. I had been reading through my meditations that day (yesterday) and a point that I had stumbled across. In On the Threshold of Transformation by Richard Rohr, there was a selection of truth that had to resonate in my spirit. It seemed as though this fit the parallel of mission trip and spiritual journey; it filled a gap. Here is an exert from the meditation entitled, No Geographical Solutions:

Every man (person) wants to discover something, to find what is missing here by journeying to a new place. We forget that we take the old self to the new place. New experiences are safely tucked inside of—or excluded from—our already existing persona or worldview…

Sometimes we refer to this as the geographical solution, the idea that we can solve our problems through an experience far from home. Encounters with the unfamiliar can indeed open new possibilities and perspectives—but only if they break through our filters and actually change us. New experiences are more often diversionary tactics.

Eventually (we) realize that what (we) were searching for cannot be found externally. Nothing outside the self can substantially change us or make us happy unless it aligns us internally.

Let that sink into your thoughts and spirit. "Encounters with the unfamiliar can indeed open new possibilities and perspectives–-but only if they break through our filters and actually change us." External stimuli can be effective if it changes us internally. It goes back to this core value, "the trip itself doesn't change the man, the man is changed on the trip." We can do this mission/humanitarian trips expecting a change and  yet never fully allowing ourselves to be changed. It's a heart issue. We can search for some experience to change us, and still bring our own paradigms and perspective with us on this journey, which inhibits us from allowing an internal change to occur. Again external factors only produce a change is it smashed and "wrecks" our filters, allowing it to change us internally. 

I've seen it in my life, over and over, and again, I've seen it in trips I've lead. We (I) think that the factors will change us without any work, any paradigm shift occurring. It's a delusion. It puts the pressure on other things, events, and people to change or for them to change us, without any work on our part. We then become frustrated by the results we receive.

When did we get to a point where we could (progressively) change without any movement or mindset renewal on our part? What must we do to get out of the mindset?