Changing the world?

Can one person change the world?
No.
But can one person make a difference for one other person?
Yes.

I'm not stupid - I know that there's no way that I can change the world on my own. But I've recently been hugely convicted about the massive levels of poverty and suffering in the world we live in.

I've been reading a book by James Orbinski, the former president of Medecins Sans Frontieres called an imperfect offering (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1846041015/ref=s9_subs_c5_s2_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0N7128HJR8DE9XR6GNBG&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463374953&pf_rd_i=468294)

And it's a gripping, challenging and highly moving read. As well as that, God's really been moving in my heart about the poverty and inequality in the world.

We're all called to do something about it. It's no good sitting at home, waiting for someone else to come and solve the world for us. Jesus commands us to love each other as we love ourselves, and this is not something we can ignore.

I'm not sure how yet, but there is something that I am supposed to do to help solve the world.

Big or small, it will make the difference for those few who I can reach.

And if we all felt like this, think of the possibilities...

Lift Every Voice And Sing

The third verse of this old slavery song was read at the end of Barak Obama's inauguration yesterday - the full version is a great hymn to God:

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.