You have the power to change the World…
One of the little things I do to focus at work oddly enough is listen to music. Radiohead, Alice in Chains, various reggae artists, etc. It is strange how listening to music, that should be distracting, actually helps me focus on the task at hand. Sometimes though, I like to put on podcasts, and just catch little snip-its here and there between tasks. Today I was listing to Rob Bell and he was preaching on Acts 1:9-10.
7 He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
I listened to bits and pieces as Rob exegeted the text, darting in and out. Than he hit me with this. “You have the power to change the word, so why are you standing there?” I had to stop my work for a second, to really think about that. How often do I sell myself short? How often do I hear and talk about the gospel, even pray to God, and not ask Him to change the world? I think more often than not, I simply don’t believe it. Being a fan of the Matrix the line that comes to mind is “so you’re supposed to save the world?” “What a mind job. What do you say to something like that?.”
Being a person, who has no idea where my life is going to go, I live life one day at a time. Take every day’s challenges, and try to have a good time with it. I do feel some trepidation, or angst, or whatever that I “don’t have it all figured out.” When I am reminded that I have the power to change the world, I must admit I ask “how?”, what is it in my existence that proves it? I become almost paralyzed because I honestly don’t know what to say to something like that.
There in lies the rub, yes?
So I hope that this is a starting point, for me yes, but also for you. That we start to believe in God, and that have been given the power to change the world when we received the Holy Spirit. To stop staring into the sky, buckle up, and get to work. We can change the world.
