Threads: Finding Inspiration to Be the Change

Thursday, 27 September 2012

Threads: Finding Inspiration to Be the Change
My new mantra: pick yourself up, brush off the dirt and carry on.

I have discovered a band called 'This Will Destroy You'. They're quite old; I'm thinking they've been around for a few years. Anyway they have a song named 'Threads'.

An instrumental band is always a dangerous thing. Before you even hear them you think to yourself will they just be another rubbish four-piece band with some 'oohs' in the right place. Not these guys, and this one song in particular is outstanding! Beautiful and inspiring. I could go on and on but this isn't a music review this is about God. What's strange is that the band aren't a Christian band, but who says they have to be Christian to inspire you?

I wrote the next part of this blog on the train on the way to my Church. On this night we were just about to start recording our live album. Our first one! It'll be out around Christmas. Anyway, I was trying to get myself into that place with God before I stepped into church that night, and I was walking to this song and something inside me just caught fire and started to burn. Slowly at first but when I got to church I was so on fire. It had been a while since I had felt God that way. So powerfully, so true, so alive in me. So here goes, this is what I wrote.

After a trip it's easy to stay on the ground, to stay in the mud. It's easy to forget what you've been through and what you're capable of. Why is it so easy to just forget the inner strength we have?

Our culture and our generation say it's okay to stay on the ground. To just lie there and let the world go by without trying again because it's bad if you try. It's not the done thing to attempt to reach your dreams or goals once let alone countless times. Again and again.

My generation thinks that it's just a matter of asking for something and without trying they will just have it. Like we all have fairy godmothers. I see people all around me who just ask for things and get it. I was told a story the other week that a graduate student in science or medicine expected to leave and get hired straight away into a really high paid job, without working her way up. She was told that she wouldn't need to start at the bottom or on a wage that is very low.

When did this become okay for us to do? Who said that we stay on the ground?! What in our society told us that we shouldn't work towards something that's important to us? I have wandered through life at points -- yes I'll admit it whole heartily. Through high school I didn't try as much as I could have. Through some relationships in my life I never tried like I should. I'm okay with admitting that but why can't other people see that it's not cool to not try?

I'm inspired a lot by a church called Abundant Life Church; they've recently changed their name to Life Church. They have many conferences but my favorite one was Rocknations 2011. The opening media piece for that conference still rings in my head every single day. I highly suggest you look it up on Youtube and get inspired. They had someone speaking, and the way he was talking was so passionate and so alive that it just pulled something up inside of me.

This next bit isn't word for word:

It is inside you and it is inside me and all we have to do is let it out. Burning bright for all to see. Nobody lights a lamp and then covers it up, no they put it on a hill for all to see. We must be the light, be the influence. I was not called to blend in, shrink back. I was called to stand out and make a difference. Be the change. I was not called to sit back in silence. I was called to be a light. I was not called to relax and fade away. Be the change. I was not called to be caged and held back. I was called to stand united. Be the change.

After that video there was a song by a very talented woman, Swedish House Mafia's "Who's Going to Change the World."

Well this blog is a challenge to you and to me.

Who is going to be the change?

How can you be the change in the world? What inspires you to burn like a bright flame?