Like many of you, I converted to the faith as a child.
The danger of finding God so young, of course, is that it’s possible for your faith to get stuck in childhood. In essence, you leave your conversion back in the 80s or 90s, tucked in your Holly Hobby bed sheets, next to your favorite Care Bear.
But a couple summers ago, while praying and reflecting on my porch, it occurred to me that if I claimed to follow Jesus, I couldn’t just claim to be “convert-ed” (past tense). I shouldn’t see my “transformation” as something that began and ended before I earned my kindergarten diploma.
Rather, there should be some present and future tense involved. As I learned to adopt more and more of God’s truths, I should be convert-ing.
After all, I wouldn’t accept lack of change in other areas of my life.
Take Drew Barrymore, for example. What if she hadn’t changed over the years? If the little blond girl from E.T. still appeared to be six years old when she appeared in Charlie’s Angels in 2003, our minds would be derailed by the discrepancy.
We would want to know what was medically wrong with her. After all, we all know that people don’t go twenty-one years without changing.
Yet, for some reason, a lot of people (including me) are willing to accept a similar lack of change in people who follow God.
You can go to church for 20 years and still sideline people with gossip. You can say your nightly prayers ritually, but still crush people with your temper.
But I am certain that this is not the way God intended our lives to progress.
After all, if you followed Mother Theresa, you would change. If you followed Martin Luther King Jr., you would change. So it stands to reason, if we follow in the way of Jesus, it will take us through places that require ongoing change and growth.
When we choose to have blind spots, especially when we make excuses for habitual sins that hurt others, we damage not only our own relationships but people’s impression of Christ and his message.
We may think its easier or more convenient to just coast along in life, relying on the skills and strengths we’ve had since childhood. But ignoring the areas in our life that God wants to transform ends up being expensive…to ourselves…to our families…our friends…our co-workers…and to the Kingdom.
We cheat ourselves and others out of experiencing more of the life Jesus said he came to bring in John 10:10.
Plain and simple: Christians can’t afford the luxury of unchanged living.
Resources…
The Bible: John 10:10b “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Something Else…
Sarah has a new book out, Picking Dandelions – A candid and personal account of outgrowing laissez-faire Christianity, moving into mature faith, and realizing that a God-following person is a changing person … and you just might follow suit.
Sarah is an avid reader and traveler who spends an unfortunate amount of time cleaning up after her manic Jack Russell terrier, Wrigley. Follow Sarah’s ongoing changes at www.sarahcunningham.org
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
“When we choose to have blind spots, especially when we make excuses for habitual sins that hurt others, we damage not only our own relationships but people’s impression of Christ and his message”—right on, girlfriend; it is a choice. Choosing and going through growing/refining can hurt like as monkeyfighter, but the outcome is peace. So glad I stopped to listen to God speak through you this morning. All the best to you, Caroline
This is just what i need this morning.
I truly believe that God does not want us to live unchanging lives. If we spend our entire lives exactly the same, how does that make Christians any different from anyone else? As a believer in Christ, I think it’s my responsibility and the way that I honor Him, to continuously grow, reflect on how I can be better, and constantly strive to be more in HIM each day. If we pray, seek the Lord, embrace the Lord, more and more each day, it is impossible to NOT change.
If we reflect back on our lives and see no growth at all, the question becomes whether we are upholding our responsibility as people who proclaim a love of Christ. If we don’t see change? We should pray to the Lord for change. If we need help to change, we should pray to the Lord for help.
One way that I think about it is this – in our lives, we are like a pool of water. If we allow the spirit of Christ to constantly flow, the water within the pool (or the spirit within us) will constantly be changed, emptied and filled with new water. However if we don’t allow any change to occur, don’t allow His spirit to flow through us, then the pool of water becomes stagnant. The water becomes cloudy, murky and begins to grow icky stuff.
If we don’t want our lives to become just as cloudy and gross as a pool of stagnant water, then change and growth through Jesus are needed!
Thanks for your wonderful post on this inspiring topic.
I speak from experience when I say that we can either choose to progress and grow, or God will choose it for us! Both offer huge lessons to be learned and even more opportunities to teach and share! Keep moving forward!
I got You Are Growing Up, and the description totally matches how I feel!
I really liked your title and examples. It makes me think not only of myself, but of my daughter. She is 6 and recently proclaimed that Jesus is her savior. She wanted to get baptised, but we came to a decision with the pastor that it was a better idea to wait until she was older and would remember it more clearly.
As a mother, my goal will be to not let her faith become stagnant, to push her in her relationship with Jesus as I push myself to become closer.
Hey everyone! I’m excited to “meet” the She Seeks readers this week. Please feel free to leave a comment or question for me in this section. I’d love to interact!!
Angela, Mandy, WCatDD, Caroline, Nicole, Glad this piece connected with your own life observations. The need to change is something all of us probably grasp (head knowledge), but its trickier to weave it into our daily habits!
My spiritual personality is “I am GROWING UP!” I have to say that I definitely agree with this…I just returned from an amazing church retreat this weekend and I was really taken aback to see Christians of all ages from all over the world coming together in GOD’s name. I was BLESSED to meet some amazing people who I connecred with and met an AWESOME pastor who saw that I needed to get rid of my “retro faith,” and together with a close friend of mine prayed with me as I repented. I am here to say that I ready to grow in my faith! GOD is AWESOME, AMAZING and ALL THAT!
And since Sarah will see this, I just wanted to let her and everyone else know that our GOD is a RIGHT ON TIME, AWESOME, and AMAZING GOD. GOD has been speaking to me through various forms this past week: Our Daily Bread, the pastor that I met at the retreat, and Sarah, to make me fully commit to Him and give it all to Him bc with Him I have everything, and without Him, I am NOTHING. Thank you Sarah for being a catalyst for our Father! GOD BLESS and Much Love!!!
On the spiritual personality I got “You Are Growing Up”. I do agree with it but I can also VERY MUCH relate to this post. I have been trying for the past few weeks to express how I feel and this post is like my feelings in words. I have been just “coasting along in life”.
Thanks for the great post. I’m a newbie to Proverbs 31 and the more buttons I click the more great info I find!
Thanks, Val and Jessica (Nicole, I’m not sure why you’re encountering trouble w/the giveaway entry – anyone have any ideas?). What are some things all of us can do to stay aware and open–on a daily basis–to our need for change?
Thanks every one for checking in with us so far. Isn’t Sarah’s inspirational entry great this week!
Just FYI, Jessica, you are good to go with your entry for the giveaway!
Keep all the great comments coming!
Sarah Martin
She Seeks Team
Hey Nicole! To enter the drawing, just leave a comment on the other post. If you are having trouble, please shoot me an email at admin (at) sheseeks (dot) org and I’ll help you
Hey everyone!
Great conversation going on here — let’s keep it going. Spread the word about our site…tweet, FB or blog about it to let your friends know about our amazing network here. We love getting to know you through your comments, and we would love to get to know your friends, too! Isn’t this week’s post awesome? I can’t wait to vlog about it on Thursday. Come back and check it out!
I am “Growing Up”. Slowly but surely. I have realized w/in the last 6 months that my time living for Christ and being a light has been incredibly limited. So is my knowledge of the Bible and scripture reference. I wanted God to provide all of this for me with a magic wand, but now realize that He wants me to seek him!