Oh, everything will change!

So by now those of you au fait with the 268 canon of music will know that I've got "The Glory of it All" by David Crowder*Band in my mind. One of my favourite parts of the song is this:

After night comes a light;
Dawn is here, dawn is here.
It's a new day, a new day!
Oh everything will change;
Things will never be the same.
We will never be the same! (Repeat line as desired)

Not the deepest of words, I must agree, but what I love is the sheer delight with which you can sing them. The old is past and we're never going back there! We're changing into something far better, reflecting God's glory more.

I mention all this because we've just been through been a huge week (or so) of changes that excite me. Wednesday we woke up to hear that Barack Obama had been elected as the USA's first black president. Friday we found out that Shikota's new political party had been named "Congress of the People". And (on a more personal note) Thursday I signed a lease for my digs for next year.

The political stuff first: I'm unashamedly delighted about President-Elect Obama. The things I've been reading out of America have been wonderful, comparing this week to our own heady days of 1994 with people partying in the streets for joy. He's done the inconceivable in breaking racial barriers and inspiring new hope in a USA that many of us had written off as incurably self-interested and narrow-minded when Bush won his second term four years ago, effectively sentencing the world to four more years of war in Iraq and threats of war in other places, not to mention lack of will to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. I'm reminded that "All governments have been placed in power by God" (Romans 13:2 NLT) and I'm grateful for this new USA government.

Then closer to home, I've really started to think that the ANC really did South Africa a favour when it elected Jacob Zuma president and later sacked Thabo Mbeki. No, I'm no Zuma fan, and I'm still rather worried at the thought of a president who already has a less-than-savoury reputation for his sexual exploits and ignorance about AIDS, not to mention the charges of corruption which he tries to evade at every turn. But without these events, we may never have been witness to the birth of a party which shows the potential to become a real challenger to the ANC at election time. That would be brilliant for our democracy, as long as our people do not choose the 'low road' of political violence as they have in the past.

And what's more, the Congress of the People (or COP, as they're calling themselves) are trying so hard to be everything that Zuma is not, that most of their rhetoric so far has stressed the need for clean government, the independence of the judiciary, and the need to build a society upholding the values of respect, integrity and ubuntu. Beautiful stuff!

Of course, I'm not naive enough to think that Obama and the COP are political saviours who will ensure a bright future for us all. As is often the case with politics, good policies are bundled with bad, and people don't keep to their promises. We can't be sure of what lies ahead, but we can pray to the God of what lies ahead about these political developments, asking him to do with them what he wills. Our Christian brother Barack Obama needs our prayers now, as do our president and all our political leaders in this confusing time.

And that brings me to the third change of the week: my digs lease. For me, it's also a leap into the unknown. I don't know how well I'll adapt to life in digs, whether I'll like my new digsmates as much after a few months of living with them (no offence, guys!), if my new room is going to be big enough for me... But I'm excited about the change that God is bringing about in my life, and trusting that he'll glorify his name through it. In the end, that's what life on Earth is all about. Oh, the glory of it all!