My big mouth and sociology degree

I had a conversation with a friend recently about how opinionated I am about social issues and how it's going get me into trouble sometime. While it didn't get me in trouble exactly, my big mouth and my EMU sociology degree did expose themselves. And this is what I learned:
I went off on a rant about poverty and the societal system that keeps people oppressed in a small group setting and was later affirmed by several people in the group for my 'different perspective' and my 'compassion'.
I appreciated the affirmation, but it left me feeling a little disappointed, and I couldn't quite figure out why. Then I realized that I wanted my rant to make people think- and not just about how passionate I am. I wanted them to listen and be cut to the heart and convicted. I wanted them to be confused and have to shift how they think about the world. I even would have welcomed a response of anger and frustration.
But I began to realize that in my righteous anger- even if I am right- I was wanting to be the person to change their minds or humble them. And that's not my job. I can be angry at the injustice of the inaction of the church on the issue of poverty and exploitation of poor, minorities and women, but that should push  me to my knees in prayer, not to just to my soap box in ranting.
It is really easy for my to hear arguments from fellow Christians about the culture of poverty and judge their blaming poverty on sin as an excuse to not have to sacrifice something to change the situation. Then as I think about it, I realize I do the same thing. Instead of blaming the poor for their poverty, I blame systems and society as a whole... which still excuses me from sacrifice; all it requires of me is to vote democrat. But often people can't get themselves out of poverty, and the government can't break cycles of poverty and generational sin... Only God can change our world, and what he calls us to do is fall to our knees in prayer and to sacrifice our comfort by taking his message of transformation and hope to the cities and slums in our world.  But we can't do the one without the other; we have to do both.