“Man in the Mirror” (1988) by Michael Jackson

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 11 October 2026

*Photo by author, The Manila House, BGC, June 2025.*

There’s an old saying that goes “If you want to change the world, change yourself first and the world changes.”

So true. It is so easy to join the numerous advocacies today that range from care for environment and providing clean, drinking water for the poor, housing programs and feeding programs and almost anything you can think of but these are nothing if we do not first change our very self.

This is the message of Jesus in today’s parable of the royal wedding feast where a guest came not in proper attire that he was thrown out from the banquet hall by the king (https://lordmychef.com/2026/10/10/crisis-decision-life-salvation/).

It is a call for us to make that important decision to always choose Jesus Chris and be clothed in his charity and service, justice and mercy, kindness and respect for life that all begins in us, in our heart and soul.

That is why we find Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror so appropriately related with this Sunday’s gospel. Though a part of his 1987 Bad album, it was only released as a single the following year that peaked at number 1 in the Billboard Hot 100, reaching the charts anew both in the US and the UK after Jackson’s death in 2009.

We were growing up in the 70’s when MJ first mesmerized us as that youngest among his brothers making up the Jackson 5; as we matured into teens and adulthood, MJ was always there as the soundtrack of our lives reaching his highest heights in hit albums Thriller and Bad.

Without any intention of downplaying his talents and genius, for me, MJ’s true artistry finally came out after his death; it was after 2009 as we have seen in the many features and recent movies about him that MJ was more than a superstar and cultural icon. He is an artist par excellence. I realized this most whenever I would listen to his music that has become a classic in the truest sense. And there are three songs I have come to love so much only after his death: Man in the Mirror, They Don’t Care About Us (1995), and Black or White (1991).

*Photo by author, Our Lady of Ephesus Chapel, Bella Rosa Gardens, Silang, Cavite, 07 October 2026.*

We loved listening to his songs when he was still alive because they were groovy, great to the senses, danceable and really hot. But after his death, I just felt surprised he sang these three songs. Unlike his other songs mostly about love and relationships, Michael ventured into social issues that touched souls and consciousness. From being a hit-maker, MJ had transformed into someone who hits our inmost being, awakening our consciousness of deeper truths and realities like equality of everyone regardless of color or race or creed.

Exactly like Man in the Mirror that was actually composed by Glen Ballard and Siedah Garrett who were asked by the late Quincy Jones to write another hit for MJ. But Garret had other things in her mind when she thought about the concept of a man looking in the mirror – into one’s self first to change the world. Jones loved the lyrics and music by Ballard and Garrett while MJ embraced it as his anthem – of the need for self-reflection to change the world. He even asked the two composers to expand and modify the lyrics that included gospel vocals by the Andrae Crouch Choir.

Moreover, its music video is the most unique of MJ’s other productions that always featured him: he never appeared in Man in the Mirror that is actually a montage of suffering people in sepia and black and white as well as the personalities behind the great events – for better or for worse – in history as well as other social realities that invite us to look into ourselves what have we done for the advancement of peace, justice, and equality among peoples.

The opening music is so haunting with keyboards sounding like chimes or winds blowing in the cold that right away stirs your soul, making you wonder in retrospect, did MJ sing this and why did we not realize right away its deeper meaning? Here is a Michael who had matured as a person. And an artist. Even activist. A music that moves you not only to sing and dance but reflect and meditate. Just like the parable of Jesus this Sunday.

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 a 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

Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na
Uh-huh

I've been a victim of a selfish kinda love
It's time that I realize
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 (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

I'm starting with the man in the mirror (who?)
I'm asking him to change his ways (who?)
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'm starting with the man in the mirror (who?)
I'm asking him to change his ways (who?)
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 that change

I'm starting with the man in the mirror (oh, yeah)
I'm asking him to change his ways (oh, you better change)
No message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make the change

You gotta get it right while you got the time
'Cause when you close your heart (you can't)
Then you close your (your) mind (that man, that man)

With the man in the mirror, oh, yeah (that man, that man)
I'm asking him to change his ways (that man, that man, that man)
Oh, you better change (you know, that man)
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 that change

Na-na-na, na-na-na, na-na-na-na
(Ooh) gonna feel real good, yeah (oh, yeah)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (na-na-na), yeah, yeah (na-na-na, na-na-na-na)
Oh-oh, oh, no

I'm gonna make a change
It's gonna feel real good, shamone (change)
Just lift yourself, you know
You've got to start with yourself (yeah)

I gotta make that change today
(Man in the mirror) you've got to
You got to start with yourself, brother
(Yeah) you know

I've got to be that man, that man
(Man in the mirror) you've got to
You got to move, shamone, shamone
You got to stand up (yeah), stand up (make that change), stand up
Stand up and lift yourself now (man in the mirror)

Go make that change, shamone (man in the mirror)
You know it, you know it, you know it, you know (change)
Make that change

The song is more than five minutes and if you went through the lyrics, it is truly like a gospel, a good news that disturb and move us to be dressed in Jesus Christ’s simplicity and humility to truly make a change in the world. The music speaks loudly and clearly the silence of that man not dressed in wedding attire in the parable. May it do the same to us!

From YouTube.com.

“Harvest for the World” (1976) by The Isley Brothers

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 04 October 2026

You must have noticed our blogs the other week when we were inspired incorporating music into our daily prayer reflections starting September 22 with “Everybody Hurts” that was actually the title of an REM song in 1992 (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/21/everybody-hurts/); the following day, we borrowed the title and the 1962 song by Bob Dylan “Blowin’ in the Wind” (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/23/blowing-in-the-wind-3/); then finally on that Friday we prayed and played Pete Seeger’s original take from the Book of Ecclesiastes which the Byrds recorded in 1965 as “Turn, Turn, Turn” (https://lordmychef.com/2026/09/24/turn-turn-turn-to-know-gods-time/).

As we have been saying since we started this blog in June 2018, we have always wished to show how God continues to speak to us in this modern time through secular music by linking our Sunday gospel with every genre like rock and jazz, punk and disco, R&B and even OPM (Original Pilipino Music).

And there have been many instances in the music scene when artists were actually inspired by the Sacred Scriptures in their composition like Seeger we have featured last week.

This Sunday, we go back to year 1976 with The Isley Brothers’ Harvest for the World whose title was a complete take from Matthew’s gospel.

In an interview published six years ago in The Guardian by Dave Simpson, composer Ernie Isley said he had just bought a new 12-string acoustic guitar and was trying it out in their basement in New Jersey in 1976 when words simply flowed that became the song’s first stanza:

All babies together, everyone a seed
Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need
Love's bountiful in us, tarnished by our greed
When will there be a harvest for the world

Ernie was still playing the song in his new guitar when his brother Marvin who played bass came to their basement with their brother-in-law and keyboardist Chris Jasper; they were so impressed with Ernie’s music and later they were joined by their other brothers O’Kelly Jr., Rudolph and Ronald who all contributed lyrics and additional musical arrangements to finally complete Harvest for the World.

According to Ernie, they were largely inspired by the news they have witnessed at that time, from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy to the growing protest movements following Nixon’s resignation in 1974 due to the Watergate Scandal and the end of Vietnam War in 1975 with the Fall of Saigon.

For the title, they remembered Matthew’s gospel scene of Jesus telling his disciples upon seeing the vast crowd that have followed them, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest” (Mt. 9:37-38).

They first released the song as a single in May 1976 and later became the title track of their album Harvest for the World that same year that reaped a lot of harvest for The Isley Brothers, peaking the top ten songs in the Billboard and UK charts that year. It became one of the most memorable music of that era that continues to be covered until now by new artists, including our very own Gary V.

For our part, we have chosen Harvest for the World because of its close links with today’s gospel on the parable of the wicked tenants who have refused to give the owner’s share of the harvest of grapes in his vineyard (https://lordmychef.com/2026/10/03/chosen-to-be-fruitful/).

Both the song and the gospel speak of too much greed among us, not realizing we are indeed the Lord’s vineyard.

Our very life itself is actually not ours to possess and own completely in total disregard of others and of God.

The same is true with our beloved planet Earth: it is the Lord’s vineyard and no one, whether individuals or governments can lay total claim for its land and other resources meant by God for everyone. Here we find its lyrics very prophetic and relevant until now:

A nation planted, so concerned with gain
As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain
And far too many feelin' the strain
When will there be a harvest for the world

We were in elementary school, perhaps in grade five or six when we first heard Harvest for the World; the song is unforgettable for me because I felt so fortunate to have found its lyrics in one of the very few issues of JINGLE magazine I have bought at that time – just four maybe – because it was so expensive. But, the first time I heard it on radio, I instantly loved it for its music so suave and cool; beat is so inviting especially with the claps in the background. A classic indeed of a gone era of great poetry and philosophy in music.

Before listening to this beautiful music that is truly a gospel too in our time, we quote Ernie from that interview six years ago by The Guardian’s Simpson which we find so fitting in closing this piece:

The world today is at least as turbulent as when we recorded it. There’s a great amount of fear. The only way things will change is if people come together in peace instead of war. That’s what we try to do with the music. When we play the song in concert, you see smiles on people’s faces, like the harvest for the world is something they’re waiting for. (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jul/06/ernie-and-ron-isley-how-we-made-harvest-for-the-world-isley-brothers?CMP=share_btn_url)

Together let us work in the Lord’s vineyard to enjoy this harvest of the world! God bless and thank you for the visit.

“Turn, Turn, Turn” to know God’s time

Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 25 September 2026
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> Luke 9:18-22

*Photo by Vincenzo Malagoli on Pexels.com*

Once again,
O Lord,
your words right away
reminded me of another song
from the 1960's but this time
taken almost verbatim 
from our first reading:

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late!

I really wonder, 
Lord, if you have "made
everything appropriate to its time,
and has put the timeless into 
their hearts,
without men's ever discovering,
from beginning to end,
the work which God has done"
(Ecclesiastes 3:11),
then what time is it now 
for me?

A time to weep or to laugh?
A time to mourn or to dance?
A time to scatter or to gather?
A time to be silent or to speak?
A time to love or to hate?

Despite our ingenuity
and intelligence,
we still could not figure out
what time it is, 
Lord, 
because we can never
know you God 
unless we let go
of ourselves,
unless we return to you.

And that is why
Pete Seeger and the Byrds
added those chorus lines
before each stanza
from today's first reading:

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

*Photo by author, Dominus Flevit Church outside Jerusalem, May 2017.*

Let me turn,
turn, turn to you
always to experience
your time, dear Lord;
let me turn,
turn, turn to you
so I may see you like
Peter as you are 
in today's gospel -
the Christ of God
(Luke 9:20),
the One who suffered
and died but rose again
for our salvation!

In your Passion and Resurrection
Jesus, 
you have shown us 
time is a dimension
for us to determine and measure 
the passing of moments, 
a reference point
to go back in the past,
to plan in the future,
to experience the present
that often escapes us;
may we learn from Richard Bach's
Jonathan Livingston Seagull the parting
words of the wise Chen after teaching
him how to fly higher than most seagulls:
"Friendships should depend on nothing
like time and space; remove time,
we have now, remove space, we have here;
don't you think between
now and here we could meet
once or twice?"

Teach us, 
Lord Jesus
to return to you,
to turn away from sins
and evil to experience fullness
of time in your coming
in every here and now.
Amen.

From YouTube.com

“Ang Himig Natin” (1973) by Juan dela Cruz Band

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 30 August 2026

*Ang aking tokwarts kagabi, brownout, 29 Agosto 2026.*

We go OPM (Original Pilipino Music) this last Sunday of August, our Buwan ng Wika – kaya dapat nga pala isulat ko ito sa wikang pambansa.

Kakaiba sa ating nakagawian na pag-uugnay ng mga makabagong musika sa ebanghelyo ng bawat Linggo, walang kinalaman itong napili nating awitin ngayon sa Ebanghelyo na inyong napakinggan sa mga Misa ngayong Linggo.

Kagaya ng karamihan kahapon bunsod ng malalakas na ulan at pagbaha, wala din kaming kuryente sa parokya sa Fatima, Valenzuela mula alas-sais ng gabi hanggang kinabukasan ng alas-dos ng madaling araw.

Mag-isa lamang ako sa ibaba ng aming simbahan, katabi ng garahe. Binuksan ko ng lubusan aking pintuan upang pumasok malamig na hangin habang balot ng kadiliman buong silong ng simbahan maliban sa aking munting kandila na sinindihan.

Ma-drama ang eksena.

*Basla ng aking tokwarts sa may garahe, kagabi pa rin.*

At doon ko naalala ang kantang Ang Himig Natin ng Juan dela Cruz Band na binubuo nina Joey “Pepe” Smith, Wally Gonzales at Mike Hanopol. Isa ito sa mga awitin ng una nilang album na pinamagatang Himig Natin na kanilang inilabas noong 1973. Itinuturing ito ang hudyat ng simula ng Pinoy Rock music na pinalaganap noon ng estasyong DZRJ-AM.

Elementary pa ako noon. Narinig ko na inaawit at tinitipak sa gitara ng isang barkadahan ng mga kabataan malapit sa amin bahay noon. Sila nagturo sa akin na makinig palagi sa DZRJ dahil nga sa Pinoy Rock at iba pang mga magagandang tugtugin.

Bagay na bagay sa panahon ngayon itong awiting ito na maituturing na isang panaghoy sa kriminalidad na umiiral, hindi kalamidad.

Ako’y nag-iisa
at walang kasama
di ko makita
ang ating pag-asa

[chorus]
Ang himig natin
ang inyong awitin
upang tayo’y magsama-sama
sa langit ng pag-asa

Tayo tayo lang ang magsama-sama. Puwera mga walang-hiyang pulitiko at upisyal ng gobyerno na nagnakaw ng bilyones na halaga sa kaban ng bayan para sa mga palpak at karamihan ay ghost projects sa flood control kaya lumala pagbaha sa maraming lalawigan at rehiyon.

Mula sa malikhaing panulat ni Smith na siyang ring umawit, maigsi lang naman Ang Himig Natin na nagsasaysay ng dalamhati ng isang kaibigan. Marahil tinutukoy ni Smith ang musikang Pinoy na noon ay hindi pa gaanong katatag na tinatabunan ng mga banyagang musika. Paulit-ulit lang naman ang lyrics kaya masarap kantahin kapag nakainom na…..

Ako’y may kaibigan
at s’ya’y nahihirapan
handa na ba kayong lahat
upang s’ya’y tulungan

[chorus]
Ang himig natin
ang inyong awitin
upang tayo’y magsama-sama
sa langit ng pag-asa

Simple at payak ang mga titik. Malalim.

Ngunit ang nagdala sa awitin ay ang musika.

Out of this world. Parang panaginip sa malalim na pagkatulog.

Astig ang gitara ni Gonzales. Pasakalye pa lamang ika nga e, solb ka na agad, tsong! Mayroon ding sumasaliw na tila piano at baho sa kanyang solo kaya umaabot ng lima at kalahating minuto ang awitin. Tagos hanggang buto pati kaluluwa, parang kinakalawkaw iyong kalooban upang matauhan sa katotohanan kung inyong pakikinggan at nanamnamin.

Ewan ko lang kung tablan din napaka-kapal at sagad-sagad na kasamaan ng mga upisyal sa gobyerno!

[chorus]
Ang himig natin
inyong awitin
ang himig natin
inyong awitin
ang himig natin
inyong awitin …

Patay na sina Gonzales at Smith. Tanging si Hanopol – ang Jeprox- na lamang ang buhay sa kanila ngunit ang kanilang musika, buhay na buhay pa rin. At habang tumatagal, lalong lumalalim at sumasarap sa panlasa. Heto sila muli sa gitna na maulan na araw ng Linggo. Ingat po, mga kapatid at magtulungan sana sa tuwina.

Mula sa Youtube.com

“The Way It Is” (1986) by Bruce Hornsby

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 23 August 2026

*Photo from Facebook post by Dr. Tony Leachon, “KLEPTOPIROSIS: When Corruption Becomes a Public Health Crisis”, 08 Agosto 2025.*

We go back to the year 1986 for our Sunday music we find so related with our gospel as well as situation in the country where we are literally inundated in government corruption and evil that have caused this massive flooding in various parts of the country.

Every year at this time when the rainy season comes, floods come in many parts of the country especially the city. It used to be normal but for the past decade, it has been getting worse every year. And suspicious until last year when it was uncovered at how officials from the Public Highways connived with lawmakers stealing billions of pesos – not to mention the life and future of countless citizens – through their mostly non-existent but paid flood control projects. (Sadly, it is until under investigation and no big fish had truly been jailed for their crimes.).

Back to our Sunday music – The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range from their debut album of the same title released in July 1986….

It’s melody mainly in piano is one of those unforgettable soft rock tune wafting on breeze with lyrics so bitterly cold of the sad realities in life. It is actually a gospel in the truest sense because its lyrics are both challenging and disturbing set in a relaxing mood and melody like the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its title could actually mislead anyone into thinking it as a feel-good music with its sophisticated piano introduction and accompaniment without paying attention to its lyrics and message.

It is not. Hornsby actually dares us even today to leave the comforts of our rooms to get truly examine how things are going on around us as if that’s just the way it is… It isn’t at all. Like poverty and unemployment as mentioned in the first stanza.

Standing in line, marking time
Waiting for the welfare dime
'Cause they can't buy a job
A man in a silk suit hurries by
As he catches the poor old ladies' eyes
Just for fun he says, "Get a job"

That's just the way it is
Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is
Ah, but don't you believe them

Most of all, an end to all forms of discrimination due to color and beliefs found in the fifth stanza.

Well, they passed a law in '64
To give those who ain't got a little more
But it only goes so far
'Cause the law don't change another's mind
When all it sees at the hiring time
Is the line on the color bar, no, no

The Way It Is is so very much like today’s gospel set in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus surveyed his disciples on what people were saying about him before directly asking them, “But who do you say that I am?”(Mt.16:15). Our personal answer to that question of Jesus leads us to our identity as beloved children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ who must be respecting each one other.

And the more we get to know Jesus, the more we also get to know who we are… This may sound simplistic: all these problems we have about school violence, degradation of our moral values as a nation that perpetuate in office corrupt and inept officials while destroying our environment with our disregard for proper disposal of waste and garbage, may be due to our disregard for who is Jesus to us.

The question who connects us with God and everyone. And with our very self. How sad that in this age of too much digitization, we have been so focused on techniques of doing like what and how, forgetting being, the focus of who. (https://lordmychef.com/2026/08/22/the-definitive-question-of-all/)

See the gospel’s relation with Hornsby’s incisive genius and values in the third and fourth stanzas where he challenges the situation we have been so accustomed to, “the way it is” as if challenging us to find Christ on the face of everyone we meet.

Said, "Hey little boy, you can't go where the others go
'Cause you don't look like they do"
I said, "Hey, old man, how can you stand to think that way?
Did you really think about it before you made the rules?"

He said, "Son
Well, that's just the way it is
Some things'll never change
That's just the way it is"
Ah, but don't you believe them
Mm, yeah

Many times in life, the simplest things are the most profound in meaning like the parables and this time the question of Jesus. And don’t forget, like modern music too that truly reflects the way it is in the world we are called to change into something more humane.

Here is Bruce Hornsby and the Range with their 1986 classic. Enjoy. And ponder too.

From YouTube.com.

“Change the World” (1996) by Eric Clapton

Lord My Chef Sunday Music by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, 19 July 2026

*Photo by author, San Juan, La Union, 09 January 2026.*

Our readings this Sunday are so lovely and refreshing, yet so true and realistic with what’s happening around us. Jesus Christ’s parable of weeds among the wheat proves what we have already known as we aged – “we live in an imperfect world, that there will always be diseases and sickness, failures and death along with scammers and criminals, liars and idiots, suckers and ungrateful and traitors among us” (https://lordmychef.com/2026/07/18/our-inexpressible-groanings/).

And yes, we all want to change the world but God cautions us because many times, the solution we find to life’s and world’s many problems create bigger problems:

But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us; for power, whenever you will, attends you. And you taught your people, by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind; and you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins (Wisdom 12:18-19).

It is a very tall order, most difficult of all, calling us to become holy and patient like God because any change in the world has to start in our selves. That is why we remember this Sunday Eric Clapton’s version of that 1996 collaboration by Tommy Sims, Gordon Kennedy and Wayne Kirkpatrick “Change the World.”

According to Kennedy, they wrote the lyrics and music to “Change the World” over a span of one year. It was first recorded by country singer Wynonna Judd in February 1996 then by Clapton in October of the same year with the famous R&B artist Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds as producer when the song was chosen as soundtrack music to the movie Phenomenon starring John Travolta. Aside from winning accolades from critics and awards including the 1997 Grammy for Song of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, “Change the World” is also one of Clapton’s best-selling hit in his entire career.

It is the music and melody of “Change the World” that is most captivating of all – soulful and reverberates deep inside any lover so in love with a woman to which Clapton has always been so famous (or notorious) like his 1971 hit “Layla” but on a different level and genre. “Change the World” is closer to Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” which he composed after the death of his four year-old son in 1991. Both songs represent for us a new character and dimension in Clapton unfolding as one of music’s foremost forces up to this time.

Clapton’s distinctive guitar-playing virtuoso in “Change the World” echoes so St. Paul’s words in this Sunday’s second reading of how the Holy Spirit within us “intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (Rom. 8:26); according to St. Paul, we do not know how to pray which is so true that is why it is the Spirit who helps us pray to God. It means that God knows so well what’s going on inside us, when we are so loss for words not only in expressing our feelings and desires but most often, we could not even understand why things are going on – like the trials and difficulties we go through, the injustices that happen.

Many times we are tempted to ask where is God amid all these sufferings we go through in life as individuals and as a nation; but, we know deep in our hearts, God is with us, within us and knows so well everything that is happening. And he is in complete control.

That is why we sigh or groan when we could not contain what’s inside us, just like Clapton’s somber yet so relaxingly confident guitar bass lines in “Change the World” he had divinely woven with the lyrics that express wishful longings of him getting better, being the best person for his beloved.

If I could reach the stars
Pull one down for you
Shine it on my heart
So you could see the truth

That this love I have inside
Is everything it seems
But for now I find
It's only in my dreams

And I can change the world
I will be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby, if I could change the world

If I could be king
Even for a day
I'd take you as my queen
I'd have it no other way

And our love would rule
In this kingdom we have made
'Til then I'd be a fool
Wishing for the day

And I can change the world
I would be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby, if I could change the world
Baby, if I could change the world

I could change the world
I would be the sunlight in your universe
You would think my love was really something good
Baby, if I could change the world
Baby, if I could change the world
Baby, if I could change the world

Even the music video evokes the parable of weeds among the wheat, of how Clapton remains undisturbed by the crowd in the terminal while singing, reminding us that changing the world begins in our being changed first into our best person as more loving, more kind, more patient. Have a blessed week ahead!

From YouTube.com.