Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed… Romans 12:2 (TPT)
Healthy Transformation – The Edit Series – Part 2
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
If in ten years from now, someone looks at me says, “you’ve changed,” I will not sulk in a corner or be utterly offended.
I will rejoice.
Change is at the heart of all good spirituality. If we’re not changing, transforming, and growing, we are not alive to the Divine at work within us, around us, or through us. I grew up a true child of Pentecostalism… always praying and believing and begging that God would use me to change the world.
Little did I know that the change The Divine entrusted me with first and foremost was personal, not global.
Leo Tolstoy once said: “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
There is no shame in change. There is no shame in editing your life; changing course; deciding that was once good for you no longer is. Everything that is alive grows and changes. Our bodies, minds, and hearts included.
Does the world need change? Heck yes.
Does the world need transforming? Reform? Uh-Huh!!
Do our governments and education systems and religious institutions and welfare attitudes and stewardship of the earth and policies and ALL.THE.THINGS. – do they need some helpful editing?
We edit our world, by first editing ourselves; by first changing ourselves.
Gandhi said: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him… We need not wait to see what others do.”
Rather than being about how dangerous the world is and how we shouldn’t follow suit, I think Gandhi’s words were more what Paul was trying to communicate when he said:
“Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.” (Romans 12:2 TPT).
Groups are harder to change than individuals. It takes more effort to turn a large ship around than a tiny boat. For all our prayers begging God to change the world, I wonder if The Divine's not whispering (or shouting) back:
It starts with you.
Which is not a condemnation, or a threat, or a drag…
Healthy transformation at its heart is essentially hope in action.
And in that case, I hope none of us are recognizable as we currently are in ten years time.
Go to The Change Within You – The Edit Series – Part 3
Written by Liz
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