Change

Congratulations to Barack Obama. Our new president ran on the promise of change. And I agree with him on that point. We do need change. What we have been doing is not working. America is in a REAL MESS!

And that leads me to a larger question: Will change happen because we have a new president? A democratically controlled congress? My own honest (& humble) opinion is that deep & lasting change does not happen because of who is in the spotlight. True change happens where there is no spotlight – like the home, the schoolyard, or the church. And it is not the celebrities who make the difference. It is the common person who changes the world. All of history’s change makers were ordinary people. Many of them faced struggles that are common to most of us.

Did you know that DaVinci’s dad was a drunk? Einstein was divorced? JK Rowlings was a single welfare mom? Van Gogh suffered from depression? Jonas Salk had an absentee dad? Beethoven’s mother had syphilis? Mother Teresa never held political office?

They were common folks like you and me just earning a living. Until something inside of them took hold & it became a passionate pursuit of something larger & greater than they were. And yet they had all kinds of reasons to sit back & do nothing. But their passion was too much.

The real change in America is not with the guy in the White House. The real change in America is in you and me. It’s with parents and singles, old and young, wealthy and poor. Across the spectrum, lasting change will come when people do more than just vote. Change is a result of people following the passion of their heart to do good. Change will happen when we refuse to offer excuses why we can’t do something and decide that nothing will keep us from the good we can do.

What is the good you can do today? Do it.

And change your world . . . And someone else’s.