#transformationtuesday

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

-Romans 12:1-2

As we were wrapping up our hashtag series, we closed out with one that is used quite a bit on Tuesdays on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.  Basically, people would post pictures of themselves from the past alongside a picture of themselves in the present in order that the viewers might see what kind of physical transformation they had gone through.  Some may do this after getting a haircut, others after losing weight, and still others might just show a picture from their childhood in order to display the change that they have encountered throughout a longer period of their lives.  After the pictures are posted, #transformationtuesday is applied.

It is curious to note that the focus is always physical transformation.  However, there is another type of transformation that we should see evidence of in our lives.  When we give our lives to Christ, we begin a transformation process (more on what we are transforming into later).  As we witness this transformation in our lives, it is important to note three points.  I will call these the 3 Rules of Transformation.

1. Transformation is impossible without the Holy Spirit.

This is incredibly important to note, especially in the book of Romans.  Throughout his letter to the Church in Rome, Paul continually pushes the idea that there is a life that is pleasing to God and a life that is unpleasing to Him.  We see this brought up repeatedly through the use of contrast.  For example, at times Paul speaks of life according to the flesh (unpleasing to God) and life according to the Spirit (pleasing to God).  Elsewhere, he speaks of the contrast between a life of accepted grace versus the life of works.  He even speaks of the basic contrast between eternal life and death.  He is constantly bringing up the idea that there is a way of life that is pleasing to God and one that is not.

In Romans 8:6-8, Paul writes, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  When we are focused on the flesh (meaning ourselves) rather than the Spirit, then we are completely unable to please God.  We will remain in this former state unless the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and allows change to happen.  Without the Spirit, transformation cannot occur.

The reason this is so important to note is that many of us have the desire to change, but we find that we are lacking the means to bring about such change.  We decide that we want to be more honest, or simply try to be kinder to others.  We desire the transformation, but find ourselves falling short over and over of the way we want to be.  Only when we stop depending on our own abilities and ask the Spirit to transform us (again, will discuss soon what we should be asking to be transformed into) can we begin to recognize change in our lives.

2. Transformation is often not immediate.

When Paul speaks of transformation happening in the life of a believer, he generally speaks of it in ways that are a process.  For example, sometimes he speaks of the process as a race.  We all know that a race is a process for those who have never run before.  It takes training before we ever get to the point that we are confident in what we are doing.  Another example he gives can be found in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul states, “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?”  Paul is once again talking about faith being a process, much like growing from a child into an adult.  We move from spiritual milk to spiritual meat (solid food).  

The reason this is important is because we desire change or transformation to be immediate.  Here comes a strange object lesson from my own life.  Last week, I was eating a cheeseburger and fries.  My mind was elsewhere as I began eating a few bites of fries.  Without looking down, I couldn’t remember if I had taken a bite of my burger yet.  This was just a momentary conversation taking place in my head, but as I was working through the flavors in my mouth, I found that I honestly couldn’t taste my burger and came to the conclusion that I must not have taken a bite yet.  Then I looked down and sure enough there was a good sized bite of the burger that had already been taken.  The taste of the french fries apparently covered completely the taste of the burger.

We tend to want our transformation to work this way.  Once we have a taste of the Spirit, we want the old taste of the flesh to be completely gone.  We want no traces of it left in our minds, just like I had completely forgotten about the taste of the cheeseburger.  And yet, it simply doesn’t happen this way (most of the time).  It’s a process.  We spend time becoming whatever is the goal of our faith.  On that note…

3. Transformation can be defined as becoming more like Christ.

Back to Romans 8.  Towards the end of the chapter, Paul writes, “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”  Notice that the goal of what God is doing in us is our conformity to Christ.  The goal of our faith is becoming more and more like Christ.  We learn about his character and become more like him.  Now why is this so important?  I believe that a lot of folks in the Church have a goal of their faith of sinning less, or becoming a better person, or treating people better.  Often, the goal becomes a particular behavior that we want to excel at, maybe giving to the poor, purity of mind, or loving others.  

But these are not the goal that we should be aiming at.  The goal is to become more like the person of Christ.  If this is our goal, then the other qualities will come along for the ride.  If we are seeking to be more Christlike, we will treat people better and try our best to put to death the sin that is in us.  We seek to mirror the quality and character of who Christ is in our own lives.  This is the goal of our transformation, that we might transform from our sinful selves into the very character of Jesus.

 

-The Pastor

Learning to Walk

In my recent blog, “Lesson of the Lanyard,” I mentioned that our daughter Aletheia had recently started to walk.  It was quite the journey because she always seemed to feel so much more confident in crawling and had gotten to the point where she was getting around really well on all fours.  We worked and worked with her, but she wanted to take her time getting there.  There were moments of frustration, but slowly she was able to get to the point that she could walk pretty easily.  Now, she actually thinks it’s pretty funny trying to get away from us when we ask her to come.  It’s cute.  We laugh just as much as she does.

I have now been in full-time youth ministry for almost 6 years at NHCC.  As I look back over those years, I can definitely see that many times I have the wrong mindset about something.  Unfortunately, it happens far more often than I’d like to admit.  However, I think there has been one issue in particular that took nearly all of this time in ministry to figure out.  My mindset has been wrong and it’s slowly beginning to come around.

I think that youth ministry is a lot like watching my daughter learn to walk.  Sometimes there are students who seem like they have everything right where they need it and simply need to make the decision to follow Christ.  They’ve grown up in the church.  They’ve got a Christian family.  They even know all of the correct answers to your questions about Christ, sin, righteousness, etc.  Yet something holds them back from ever taking that first step.  It can be frustrating as a youth pastor to see these students seemingly set up for a relationship with Christ only to see them choose something else.  But, here’s the lesson: you never ever lose hope in them and you never ever lose hope in Christ.  Aletheia took her time walking but as her parents, we joined together in encouraging her, cheering for her, teaching her and even propping her up so that she could take those first steps.  You never lose hope in your students or in what Christ is able to do in and through them.

One more lesson.  Once Aletheia began to walk, she would frequently fall.  Down she’d go, sometimes to bounce back up, and other times to stay down for a bit.  If this isn’t a great picture of following Christ, then I don’t know what is.  There have been times in ministry when you honestly believe that students (the ones who have been baptized) will never understand that life changes when Christ is introduced.  I always wanted to have immediate change in their lives, and yet it never seemed to happened that way.  To be honest, it doesn’t happen that way in MY OWN life!

So I would watch students who had just been baptized treating others pretty badly.  Or I’d notice their Facebook page and realize that some of their posts weren’t appropriate.  Or I’d even see them drop off the radar for a while and not come to church or youth group.  And I would become irritated.  I just wanted to see an entire ministry filled with students who lived EXACTLY like Jesus, and it never came to pass (and yes, I fully understand and take responsibility for the hypocrisy in that statement).  I have been learning that patience might be the most valuable virtue in all of ministry.  Students begin to walk in their faith, learning what it means to be devoted to Christ, learning what it means to be a living sacrifice, and falling down pretty often.  Sometimes they’re right back up walking, and sometimes they stay down a bit because of all the pain they’ve just experienced.  And again, the pastor can’t come to them with rage or judgment in his eyes.  He must lovingly embrace them for who they are in that moment and encourage them to walk again.

Oh had I only learned that lesson six years ago.  Trust may have been increased.  Love may have been embraced.  Bonds would have been built stronger.  Patience and gentleness must be the characteristics that our students see in us at all times.  Hard to do, and yet incredibly worth it.

Now, thinking ahead to when my daughter becomes old enough and slips up.  I’m guessing that will be unlike anything I’ve ever experienced…

-The Pastor