Melinda stopped me on the way out of a meeting with a consultant and asked me what I thought about the changes headed our way. “This is a good time to be a face in the crowd.” She laughed because I’m not exactly a shrinking violet. Being a face in the crowd seems like it goes against my nature and let’s be honest it does. I was born standing on a soapbox. A guy who didn’t know me well gave me a bullhorn once. He took it back just as quickly. And yet every instinct I know and trust is telling me to be a face in the crowd and I'm paying attention.
We are living in fascinating times. We need the changes that are headed our way and I’m excited for all of us. Like many of you there are moments when I teeter on the brink of freaking out at the magnitude of what’s happening. It’s big by anyone’s definition and we are lucky to be part of it. Yeah, that’s right I said lucky. It may not feel especially auspicious and it’s not going to be painless, but think of it this way, we get to shape our destiny and the destiny of generations to come. It’s a steep learning curve for some folks but none of us are doing it alone. We need each other during these turbulent times because no one of us has the answers. Ready or not, changes are at hand.
You know as well as I do that changes are not timid creatures knocking gently on life’s door. There’s a reason for that. No, changes don’t tap lightly on our doors at all. They pound once and then barge right in with out a fare thee well or howdy do. They leave you gasping for breath and shaking your head, if not shaking in your boots. The only guarantee is that change is coming and this too shall pass.
Like John Lennon and one or two others before him Bob Dylan sang a prophet’s song. We need the reminder, “The times they are a changing.” We do have a voice and we have a hand in what is to come, we are not feckless victims of fate. It is up to each of us to chart our course according to the counsel of our own hearts in communion with God. Mine is telling me that this is a time to be a face in the crowd. What is yours telling you?
The Times They Are A-Changin' Bob Dylan
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.
