Transformed Changes and changing

A very good friend of mine learned this past week that he may have cancer. Maye hearing this news should have sent me reeling, but instead I felt numb. It is not that I am insensitive to my friend, or his family and friends…when we love deeply it is logical to assume that we would mourn deeply as well. In any event, many people recover from cancer, and this whole situation could go several directions from here…still…death makes us think about life.

I am only 44, and yet I have outlived both of my parents. My dad actually didn’t die until he was 68, but he was permanently disabled (mentally & physically) from an accident when he was just 42, and mom passed away suddenly at the age of 37. Periodically I am acutely aware that each day is a bonus…I could already be gone.

When I reflect on Isaiah 57:1 (The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.) I am struck by the impression that death is relief…simply the end of the curse (see Genesis 3)…and not tragedy. (1 Cor 15:55)

Now, I am not advocating self-initiated premature death…quite the opposite.

Could the reality of death not propel us in the direction of  a more fulfilled life?

What fear could possibly hold us if we actually understood the true implications of what I have stated above? How much differently would we live, if we rose each morning with this truth firmly entrenched,directing all of our thoughts and actions with steadfast consistency? Would we actually consider that trusting God for anything…anything(!)…was a risk?

Faith that God exists is quite easy to establish…however, trusting Him is another issue. Trusting Him to provide whatever we need for our future…or forgiveness for our past; to be our healer, or our comforter.

I don’t wish for my friend to be gone early, but I am reminded that we are all on the same journey…and none of us knows the day or hour of our passing. If we feel that our time has come too soon, then maybe we should consider why we would want an extension. What are we engaged in that we must continue…something so eternally impacting that we must see it  through to completion?

Given that we are not indispensable, and that God can raise up others to carry on…let me propose that there is only one thing that simply must continue…one thing that only we have the power to initiate; to request: our own personal surrender to the transforming work of God within us.

Let me also suggest that since we do not know the day or hour, we had better get on with making the request.

Posted under Transformation

Last summer I was watching the moon rise over the lake…one of the most beautiful moments I have experienced each summer…something I truly look forward to each year! This particular time I was struck by the thought that, “I am like moonlight…just a reflection of the Son.”

As I prepared last week to speak at our church service yesterday, I was confronted with a new challenge in Paul’s exhortation for us to “shine like stars” (Phil 2:15)…stars have their own light…they do not simply reflect.

Then this morning, I was studying the two times that God speaks out to affirm Christ, once at the river during His baptism, and once on the mount of transfiguration. Both times God says, “this is my dearly loved Son, in who I am well pleased”. Something within me longs to hear God speak this over me…yet I am aware that I am powerless to achieve this on my own. I am simply not able to be good.

I was brought to an awareness that Christ, on the mount of transfiguration, experienced a metamorphosis; a change on the outside that comes from the inside. Jesus did not simply reflect God’s glory, but rather it radiated from within Him, and thus He shone like a star.

I guess, as pretty as it looks, I don’t just want to be moonlight. I’d rather be transformed from within…to experience God intimately so that He shines forth from within me…and in this being glorified.

Posted under Transformation