Changing the world

Yesterday I picked up U2's album "October" from 1981. Sheesh...how 26 years old! What possessed me to buy this CD of early U2, I don't know; add it to my collection I guess. One song in particular caught my attention "Rejoice" (lyrics below), and especially one line in the song, "I can't change the world, but I can change the world in me." There is so much truth to that phrase...Changing the world starts from within our own lives. We experience the truth of this if we've grown up or live in a dysfunctional family. One person's dysfunction affects the rest of the family system. Conversely, one person's emotional, mental, and spiritual health will have a positive affect on a family.

The lyrics to the song also echo the ancient words from Paul to the Christians in Philippi, "Rejoice in the Lord always...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, thing about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you" (Philippians 4:4, 8-9). In the face of difficulty around us, we dare to rejoice in God's goodness and grace.

It's falling it's falling
And outside the buildings
Are tumbling down
And inside a child on the ground
Says he'd do it again

And what am I to do
What in the world am I to say
There's nothing else to do
He says he'll change the world someday
I rejoice

He's building, I'll follow
In my bed when I woke up
To what he has said
Everything's crazy
But I'm too lazy to lie

And what am I to do
Just tell me what am I supposed to say
I can't change the world
But I can change the world in me
If I rejoice
Rejoice...

And what am I to do
Just tell me what am I supposed to say
I can't change the world
But I can change the world in me
If I rejoice

I don't know what to change
Rejoice...