Change: Believe It

There are a few reasons why I love hanging out with an older crowd, but foremost among them is this: they are a wealth knowledge. You can talk to them for hours, and because of their experience, they give very good insights and perspectives that one as young as me usually will not/do not see.

Our conversation veered off -not unexpectedly- from wine and food towards the state of our government today and what we can do to improve. I have to say, I always thought I was well educated, and I make it a point to keep abreast with the going ons of in this little corner of our sheltered world, but they KNOW so much that is going on in our country! Somehow, they have information that mainstream media (newspapers, radio, tv) don't convey.

They asked me why I wanted to stay here, why I wanted to fight for our nation, and they all agreed that THE NEXT GENERAL ELECTION WILL BE A DEFINING CHAPTER IN OUR COUNTRY. So please register and vote!!! Change is coming, you and I can feel it. Look around you. Are you happy with our living conditions? Are you satisfied with our government? The future belongs to you and I, and we owe it to ourselves as well as our futures to fight and make. a. change.

I truly and wholly believe that we live in a blessed land. We have an abundance in natural resources: gas, wood, oil palm, rice, industrious people. No wars, no famine, no droughts, no earthquakes, no hurricanes, no volcanoes. We can be better than what we are.

We as Christians are called to 'give unto Caesar's what is Caesar's' and to 'obey the law of the land'. Both, I believe, asks us to struggle for what we believe in by voting, and to fight for what is right in our country.

When was the last time any of us had to struggle for change? Granted, this is not an fair question, but we live as we do now because our forefathers -in name if not blood- have struggled and fought tooth and nail for us. Remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre? Led by student activists, they fought for democratic and economic change. Are we any different? Are our objectives any different than theirs? Because I know what I am fighting for: change. We are all fighting for a better tomorrow.

Look towards Mexico, President Calderon's military crusade against the drug cartels. At the epicenter of it all is Juarez. The homicide rate here is the highest in the world. Pastor Eddy (name changed to protect him) had the chance to get out of that place. This is not a man with nothing to loose, he has a family, he has a wife and a kid. He stays because he has a purpose, a God-given purpose. He stays because he believes that there will be a revival such as never seen before in the land. His church accepts former assassins and cartel members. He stays to fight for the country, to fight for his faith, even unto death. He fights for a place he loves, a place he still believes in.

Can we do any less?