Banksy work on a Palestinian garage

A couple weeks ago, we sang “Love Can Change the World” for the first time at Willow.

The response was overwhelmingly great, but we received a handful of negative comments and emails…mostly about the opening line “bridges are more beautiful than bombs.”  (It’s hard for me to understand why a song about love and peace brings up so much resistance, especially with Christians. Why do you think that is?)

And now after spending the last couple weeks in the middle east, this simple song has re-embedded itself inside me. We walked through a palestinian refugee camp to meet people living in this hopeless situation. We stood at the separation wall built to bring “greater security” but actually pouring fuel on a simmering fire. We met with numerous people who have been jailed and interrogated for speaking freely. What a mess. Violence leads to more violence. The oppressed become the oppressors. And peace gets pushed farther and farther away.

However, “Love Can Change the World” didn’t begin as a song about international politics. . .it actually was born out of something more internal. How do I treat the person in my life who drives me crazy? How do I speak about the person who has spoken poorly about me? How do I act when someone/something doesn’t let me get my way? It’s one thing to work for peace overseas, but it’s another to forgive a friend who deeply hurts me. And although I’m not great at either, I want to live a life of BOTH!

Learn more about the song HERE.