One of my favorite Michael Jackson songs and one of the most daily challenging verses in the Bible.
Michael says,
I'm Gonna Make A Change, For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good, Gonna Make A Difference, Gonna Make It Right . . .
As I, Turn Up The Collar On My Favorite Winter Coat this Wind Is Blowin' My Mind
I See The Kids In The Street, With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind? Pretending Not To See Their Needs
A Summer's Disregard, A Broken Bottle Top And One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On The Wind Ya' Know 'Cause They Got Nowhere To Go That's Why I Want You To Know
I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change
I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize That There Are Some With No Home, Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me, Pretending That They're Not Alone?
A Willow Deeply Scarred, Somebody's Broken Heart And A Washed-Out Dream
They Follow The Pattern Of The Wind, Ya' See Cause They Got No Place To Be
That's Why I'm Starting With Me
God speaking through James says,
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror. and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it— he will be blessed in what he does.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
James and Michael weigh in on the Man in the Mirror, but only one of them gives us any clue on how to make the change. I know in my life I have repeated Michael words over and over as I have struggled to make a change in my own life. When I have seen injustice in the lives of others or I have seen the selfishness of my own decisions I have either whispered or cried out my desire to change. But saying it, even with great feeling doesn't make it happen. Only the doing matters, otherwise they are just fall back to being great intentions carried by a beautiful melody or wishes and hopes that never come true. James offers the only help for anyone wanting to make a change. The changes come by doing what is revealed to us as we abide in God's word. If we don't any change is short lived. I don't want to be a forgetful hearer any longer. I want to bridle my tongue and visit orphans and widows and keep the stains of this world off of my life.
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