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A Christian
Thought for the Month - September 2012
Thoughts for believers & seekers
Thought for the Month -
Change or Transformed
2 Corinthians 3:18 As we reflect God, so we are transformed into the likeness of Jesus.
There are small signs around that Autumn is just waiting to arrive. We have one particular tree in our garden, which every year we watch intently to observe the sign of approaching Autumn. Gradually the leaves will turn from green to a wonderful reddish reddish brown. I’m told it is a combination of changing temperature and increased humidity. Gradually, because of the seasonal changes, a transformation will take place in the leaves of our tree. The transformation takes place because of the things outside the tree itself.
This has had me pondering the difference between ‘change’ and ‘transformation’. Let me explain. Jamie is a young man whose uncle is trying to get him into a job in the company he works for. This particular job requires a certain amount of up front contact with the public and so his uncle knows that the manager of ‘human resources’ will be looking for a well spoken, well dressed, polite young man for the job, someone who knows something about the firm and who can obviously show an interest in it.. Unfortunately Jamie is a bit laid back in life and so is a bit sloppy in the way he speaks and the way he dresses. There are a couple of weeks before Jamie is due to go for an interview and so his uncle embarks on a campaign to tidy Jamie up and also get him to find out things about the company. By the day of the interview the change in Jamie is quite dramatic and he matches all the criteria needed for the job. The change was remarkable but deep down he’s still the same old Jamie; he just looks and sounds different on the outside.
In my business, that of helping people find a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I often see people give way to the temptation to try to bring about a change in themselves. For some reason they come to a point of thinking about becoming a Christian and quite often I watch them trying to conform to what they think are the expectations of the church community but it’s just a surface change.
Then I find someone else who comes to a crisis in their life where they realise they are not what either they or God would like, they hear about Jesus dying for them, to take the punishment for all their shortfalls, and they grasp at it like a drowning man grasping for a straw. In prayer they surrender to God and then I watch something remarkable happen. They are suddenly what I can only call ‘God-conscious’ in a new way. They are not religious - in fact they are often frowned on by religious people for their openness to whatever God wants and they seem full of new life, brimming over with it.
I watch them being not changed, but transformed. It’s like the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in his second letter: having encountered God somehow something of God is being reflected in them and they are being transformed, not because they are trying to be good, but simply the wonder of God is transforming them.
It’s an amazing difference, this change versus transformation thing. One one hand you have people who are struggling to change, and it’s all self-effort, trying to appear good. Then on the other hand you have this person who is being transformed, rather like a flower opening up when the sun shines on it. In one, there is struggle and effort to be good, but it’s still all self-centred, self-effort. In the other there is a natural transformation that is caused by the encounter with God, and the sad thing that I see so often, is that the first person just can’t see it, can’t see that it’s not supposed to be all about them trying to be religious, it’s about them being transformed by God’s love so they can be real.
One strives, the other surrenders. One is changed by self-effort and there is an artificial pretend-goodness that can put on a face while others watch. The other one simply receives love and is transformed and is just different, different in a good way, whether others watch or whether they are alone. Their transformation is far more than a skin deep change, and they are happier with it as well.
Ponder this as you watch the leaves change this autumn. The sun of God’s love is just waiting to bring transformation in each of us; it just needs us to surrender to it. Have a good Autumn.
2 Corinthians 3:18 As we reflect God, so we are transformed into the likeness of Jesus.
There are small signs around that Autumn is just waiting to arrive. We have one particular tree in our garden, which every year we watch intently to observe the sign of approaching Autumn. Gradually the leaves will turn from green to a wonderful reddish reddish brown. I’m told it is a combination of changing temperature and increased humidity. Gradually, because of the seasonal changes, a transformation will take place in the leaves of our tree. The transformation takes place because of the things outside the tree itself.
This has had me pondering the difference between ‘change’ and ‘transformation’. Let me explain. Jamie is a young man whose uncle is trying to get him into a job in the company he works for. This particular job requires a certain amount of up front contact with the public and so his uncle knows that the manager of ‘human resources’ will be looking for a well spoken, well dressed, polite young man for the job, someone who knows something about the firm and who can obviously show an interest in it.. Unfortunately Jamie is a bit laid back in life and so is a bit sloppy in the way he speaks and the way he dresses. There are a couple of weeks before Jamie is due to go for an interview and so his uncle embarks on a campaign to tidy Jamie up and also get him to find out things about the company. By the day of the interview the change in Jamie is quite dramatic and he matches all the criteria needed for the job. The change was remarkable but deep down he’s still the same old Jamie; he just looks and sounds different on the outside.
In my business, that of helping people find a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, I often see people give way to the temptation to try to bring about a change in themselves. For some reason they come to a point of thinking about becoming a Christian and quite often I watch them trying to conform to what they think are the expectations of the church community but it’s just a surface change.
Then I find someone else who comes to a crisis in their life where they realise they are not what either they or God would like, they hear about Jesus dying for them, to take the punishment for all their shortfalls, and they grasp at it like a drowning man grasping for a straw. In prayer they surrender to God and then I watch something remarkable happen. They are suddenly what I can only call ‘God-
I watch them being not changed, but transformed. It’s like the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in his second letter: having encountered God somehow something of God is being reflected in them and they are being transformed, not because they are trying to be good, but simply the wonder of God is transforming them.
It’s an amazing difference, this change versus transformation thing. One one hand you have people who are struggling to change, and it’s all self-
One strives, the other surrenders. One is changed by self-
Ponder this as you watch the leaves change this autumn. The sun of God’s love is just waiting to bring transformation in each of us; it just needs us to surrender to it. Have a good Autumn.