Shortly after the release of the song “Waiting On the World to Change”, John Mayer told a newspaper reporter, “I wanted to start a debate. Most of us are happy to wait for things to change.” So, maybe, as some have suggested, Johnny boy was being ironic.

Of course, he also reportedly told a concert crowd in Vancouver that this song is as much a political song as “Grey’s Anatomy” is a show about medicine.

Who knows? Supposedly, he smokes a lot of pot, so he might not remember what he was thinking when he wrote it originally.

Regardless of his original intent, my point is this: there are a lot of people who honestly feel the way he describes in the lyric. They feel disenfranchised. They feel like they can’t effect change. They feel powerless, at the mercies of some great “them” out there. Thus, they blame the evils of society on “them” — the government, the wealthy, corporate America, Opus Dei, the Masons, etc.

The general feeling depicted so accurately in Mr. Mayer’s song is one of frustration and resignation. As he sings, “Now we see everything that’s going wrong with the world and those who lead it. We just feel like we don’t have the means to rise above and beat it. So we keep waiting, waiting on the world to change.”

Here’s why I bring this up: It’s not just the whiny, emo kid who feels this way. It’s not just the dope-smoking, seven-year senior at your local community college who feels this way, either. I know a lot — and I mean a lot — of Christians who feel this way, too.

Culture is bad. Universities are liberal strongholds. The media can’t be trusted. Government is corrupt. Hollywood is perverse.

But they won’t listen to us. We’re nobodies. We’re just regular folks who “don’t have the means to rise above and beat” the system.

So, we keep waiting — waiting on the world to change.

And just how do we think that’s going to happen? The world’s going to change itself?

Jesus gave his followers some pretty explicit marching orders. He told us to get out there and mix it up with the world, taking his light and his salt with us as we go. He even promised to be with us as we go. Believe it or not, he’s already out there — in the recording studios and sound stages, in the green rooms of Broadway theatres, in the halls of Congress, in the libraries and lecture halls on University campuses worldwide, in the strip clubs and biker bars and crack dens, too. He’s in the soup kitchens and in the museums of New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta.

He’s out there, and he promises to give us everything we need to join him there.

So, tell me, please — and be honest about this because I really want to know — what are we waiting for?

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Engaging Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.