Across the universe

Nothing gonna change my worrrrrled.
Nothing gonna change my world.
Nothing gonna change my world….

Hear that sentiment in John Lennon’s voice.  My ears absorb the sincere and heartfelt undaunted words radiating through the P.A. System at DFW airport this morning as I down my much welcomed tall black coffee from Starbucks.  God bless Seattle.

Jockeying for position at the gate for an aluminum silver bullet to fly me to Baltimore, I quickly fall into a time lapse.  “All Across the Universe” by the Beatles,  emits familiar sound waves throughout the airport’s intercom system instantly throwing me back in time 30 years.

This 46 year young guy traveling on a journey mentally flashes back to his 16 year old narrow mind for the remainder of this Lennon & McCartney sonnet.  As a young whipper snapper, “Nothing’s gonna change my world, nothing’s going to change my world,” rolled off my teenage lips on more than one occasion.  Back then, I sang those words from my heart. I didn’t want anything to change my world. I dug my heels into the ground and had no desire to change anything about me because in my young uninformed mind I knew everything.  The poster child for being a “Legend in my own mind” would rightfully bear my image if such a poster existed.

Imagine if your world remained stagnant for 30 years. I don’t care how popular you were in high school, how many footballs you tossed impressing the energetic cheerleaders or how fast your heart pounded during that first romance during those high school years. The fact is we are happy where we are today.

Thank God,  so many positive things change our world for the better.  Every day is a learning process filled with abundant life and great hope of serving others. Sharing kindness, sharing love, making new friends, learning from others and experiencing growth as a child of God produces an unexplainable joy in one’s heart.

God wants us to grow.  He wants to be in relationship with us.  He wants us to hear His voice. He wants us to have faith with a childlike trust.  He wants to change our world for us and no one does it better than He when we give Him complete control.

Maybe at the age of 33 years old when Lennon sweetly professed those words in lyrical fashion, he was standing staunchly in his view of life and saw no need for personal change.  After all, two years earlier in 1966, he claimed his band as being more popular than Jesus Christ.  Wow!!  I thought my ego was oversized.

I am excited to share in my mid 40’s that surrendering to Christ’s compassionate love completely changed my world.  The dynamic changes He made in me just in the last 8 months of me living in the buckle of the Bible Belt more than justified me moving 1,500 long miles from my New Jersey home.

Jersey is an awesome place to live and I loved living there.  I never expect to lose the Jersey pride my undersized State instilled in me with the help  of Old Blue Eyes, The Boss, Southside Johnny, and other blue-collar home boys such as Bon Jovi.  Yes, the list goes on but this writing is not about how great the Garden State is.

As wonderful as NJ rightfully boasts of itself, living in a new land out on the range produces learning, new interests, growth and making new friends.  I cannot put into words how friendly the Native Texans are and I am glad I was brought across my tiny universe.

Change your world. No matter how good it is, always seek change.  Always improve. Always change for the better.  We are all in the army, the army of life and I ENCOURAGE you to be “All you can be.”

Put off the old ways of selfishness, greed, arrogance, gossip, and other unrighteous behaviors. Regardless of where you live, learn all you can. Ask God for His goodness, ask Him for the truth.  Ask Him for His love.  Ask, trust, listen and grow and you will travel with love, hope, and venture, “All across the Universe” where you may enrich yourself all across the universe.