Melinda gets it.

I came upon a CNN Blog called Young People Who Rock...and this is the latest post...

Using her new found stardom to impact the Kingdom is the most noble thing anyone can do with something that can be so self-focused and self-centering. Melinda Doolittle gets it. She gets that she can impact the world. She was put in a place, with her rise on American Idol, that she knew she could use as a platform. She traveled to the Malaria-belt of Africa with First Lady Laura Bush supporting Malaria No More, to raise awareness of the disease. She believes, as do I, and many others, that Malaria can be eradicated, wiped off the face of the earth, completely prevented, that people dying of Malaria is a tragedy because it can be prevented -- with medicines to treat it and insecticides and nets to prevent it in the first place. People of Africa just need to be aware of it and have the oppertunity and knowledge to seek the help they need to live, because there is life after Malaria, and it can be prevented. Doolittle's goal is to see malaria eliminated in her lifetime, and I think that is possible. Melinda does rock. God bless Melinda and the many people like her. They are the ones who are going to shape our generation, they will leave the legacies for us, they are the ones we will tell our children about. They are bringing the good to this world, the way Jesus intended it. Melinda rocks. Melinda gets it.

If we all just got it, if we all just did our little part to bring the Kingdom...O what a wonderful world that would be.

surely WE can CHANGE

and the problem is this

we were bought with a kiss

but the cheek still turned

even when it wasn't hit

and i don't know

what to do with a love like that

and I don't know

how to be a love like that

when all the love in the world

is right here among us

and hatred too

and so we must choose

what our hands will do

ahere there is pain

let there be grace

where there is suffering

bring serinity

for those afraid

help them be brave

where there is misery

bring expectancy

and surely we can change

something

and the problem it seems

is with you and me

not the LOVE who came

to repair everything

where there is pain

let us bring grace

where there is suffering

bring serinity

for those afreaid

help them be brave

where there is misery

bring expectancy

and surely we can change

surely we can change

oh surely we can change

something

oh, the world's about to chance

the whole world's about to change

I listened to this song on the way home from work last night. And on the way to work this morning, I listened to it 3 times on manual repeat (manual, because I had to push the back button...). And it opened my eyes. We have all this love in this world, it's all around us; in addition to all the hatred we find. And surely we can change. The world is about to change. If we just get up and be hope, be grace, be serinity, be brave, be that relief that the world needs.

We CAN change.