You Have the Power to Change Your World

This event had a profound impact on the couple and their family. The man in the story is an estate planning lawyer, and he has added to his practice recommendations to his clients about building a “Book of Remembrance” highlighting key events in a family’s life, in order to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to their members. This remarkable experience now has a prominent place in this family’s history.

The manager in the story is my wife, and she would say that she was only doing her job. I disagree. People who are just doing their jobs check the box and sign out when the clock strikes five. This couple was struggling with the issue of their newborn child’s injury. The nurse manager went beyond the standard organizational “CYA” recitation and provided comfort and affirmation to the couple that their child would be okay. The manager’s advanced experience combined with a values-based character led her to pray with the couple and encourage them through hugs and hand-holding, providing both spiritual and emotional support throughout this tense period of time.

Those of us who grew up in the 1960s – yes, I am really that old – were told that our world needed to change… and that we were just the ones to make it happen! Our music blasted this deafening pronouncement to us continually, and marchers shouted it in the streets during significant protest movements such as at the 1968 Democratic Convention.

A psychologist wrote that people’s desire to change their world has been a consistent theme among his patients over the many years of his practice (Levoy, 2022). In an extensive global survey of more than 21,000 adults from 27 countries (Ipsos.com, 2020), the results found that 72% of people surveyed would prefer their lives to change significantly, rather than returning to how things were prior to the COVID-19 crisis. On top of this, of the group surveyed, 86% would prefer to see the world change significantly, rather than returning to the status quo. That is a lot of people looking to change the world, or looking for the world to be changed!

And guess what? You have the power within you to change the world around you! We may not be talking about global change, or government change. But you have the power within you to change the lives of the people with whom you come in contact every day. Your three sources of power can affect people emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Here’s how.

The Power of Touch

We respond to touch even sooner than we are able to communicate verbally (Shpancer, 2024). According to one author (Moran, 2021), touch is the first sensation to which a human fetus will respond. The hand of a two-month-old baby will grasp when it feels something in its palm (Moran, 2021). One author wrote that during childhood, the touch of a parent is critical for the social and emotional development of their child (Shpancer, 2024).

Early forms of medicine drew upon the power of touch by using healing massage. Most recently, this use of touch has been revived as a part of the healing process. The power of touch is now known to boost our immune system, to help lower our blood pressure, to decrease the level of stress hormones, and to trigger the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural opioids, and which can block pain signals (Moran, 2021). Some cultures are very active in touch for greetings and as expressions of friendship and affection (Moran, 2021).

The Power of Affirmation

There is much written about the use of self-affirmations to drive greater performance (Geisinger.org, 2024). Words have power to encourage or to tear down. Positive words create positive feelings and support people’s self-confidence and perceived competence (Cascio et al, 2016). Affirmations can help to decrease stress, improve one’s well-being, support academic performance, and encourage people to open up where behavior change is needed (Cascio et al, 2016).

But let’s see what the science says. According to one meta-analysis, a research study of other research which reviewed 144 experimental tests on the effect of affirmations, it was found that the process of using affirmation appears to reduce defensive resistance to health risk information and to increase subsequent readiness for behavior change (Epton et al, 2014). According to this research, my wife’s words of comfort and assurance were particularly important during the crisis time faced by this young couple.

The Power of Prayer

Let me clarify something right up front: We do not have any power in prayer – God does! God is the One who answers our prayers and moves according to His will (1 John 5:14-15 ESV). God is the One who “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Yet the power we do have IS TO PRAY in order to invoke God’s blessing and intervention (James 5:13-16).

I am surprised at how infrequently we take advantage of the power available to us through prayer. Oh sure, people pray before and after church, they pray before meals; we even pray before things like political conventions of all things. But how often, when hearing of a critical situation, do we stop right then and begin to cry out to God on behalf of that individual? How often do we see a situation where someone needs to be comforted, and miss the opportunity right then to lead out in prayer? I know that I have been guilty of this for sure.

The scripture says this: “God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams” (Ephesians 3:20 The Message)! I love that translation!

I think we have narrow imaginations. I believe we need to have big bold expectations of our Heavenly Father! He loves us and hears everything that we ask (Psalm 139:4). We need to broaden our imagination as the scripture says and cry out on behalf of others who have needs and are hurting. We may not see answers immediately; and these prayers may ultimately not be answered as we hope (Daniel 3:17-18). But just the fact that we take a compassionate step towards those who are hurting and lean into prayer on behalf of someone else will be an encouragement, and hopefully strengthen their resolve that God hears and can answer. “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1 NLT).

Commit Yourself to Using Your Power

Let me close by returning to the article by the psychologist mentioned earlier (Levoy, 2022). He seemed to write rather bleakly about those people who said they wanted to change their world; but how those folks faced feelings of inadequacy to do much to make change happen (Levoy, 2022). Later in the article he made this statement: “The hard truth is that the difference any of our individual lives is likely to make in terms of human history, evolution, consciousness, or suffering, is roughly equivalent to throwing a stone into a lake” (Levoy, 2022). How depressing, especially coming from a person committed to helping people better cope with life and relational issues (Cleveland Clinic, 2025).

It seems that unlike medical doctors, psychologists don’t appear to take professional oaths to keep their people from harm (Amatruda and Schwarz, n.d.) – and maybe they should. I would encourage you and I to take an oath, where we commit ourselves to using the power that we have to change the world around us, one life at a time. If we can just impact a handful of lives, then our purpose on earth will certainly have been greater than a stone thrown into a lake.

We may not be able to see the impact of using our power on the generations that follow, similar to what the couple in the story mentioned above. We will trust that our power was not kept to ourselves, and that we used what we had with all of our passion and influence to make a difference and change our world!

Sources:

• Amatruda, K.; & Schwarz, J. (n.d.). A Psychologist’s Oath. Psychceu.com
• Cascio, C. N., O'Donnell, M. B., Tinney, F. J., Lieberman, M. D., Taylor, S. E., Strecher, V. J., & Falk, E. B. (2016). Self-affirmation activates brain systems associated with self-related processing and reward and is reinforced by future orientation. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 11(4), 621–629. 
• Cleveland Clinic (2025). Psychologist. Cleveland Clinic: Health Library.
• Epton, T., Harris, P. R., Kane, R., van Koningsbruggen, G. M., & Sheeran, P. (2015). The impact of self-affirmation on health-behavior change: a meta-analysis. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 34(3), 187–196.
• Geisinger.org (2024, November 11). The Power of Positive Affirmations. Geisinger Health: Wellness
• Ipsos.com (2020, September 16). Around the world, people yearn for significant change rather than a return to a “pre-COVID normal.” Ipsos: Global Opinion Polls. 
• Levoy, G. (2022, January 4). The Trouble With Trying to Change the World. Psychology Today: Passion
• Moran, J. (2021, February 28). The power of touch: is this the sense we’ve missed most? The Guardian: Life and Style 
• Shpancer, N. (2024, May 28). The Power of Touch. Psychology Today: Relationships