Transformed Changes and changing

The neighbour has a dog. I like the dog. The dog is tethered out front all day…alone. I don’t like the feeling that comes with knowing that. The dog is getting a bad rap from other neighbours…it is a rottweiler. I don’t like the feeling that comes with knowing that either. So…I have volunteered to take the dog along on my hikes across the lake in the park.

First trip revealed the lack of discipline in the dog. All pup…no restraint. Too big to get away with that. So I started watching dog training videos. On one of the videos the trainer says, “If you can teach the dog to ’stay’ reliably, you can be confident in taking them anywhere”.

“Hmmm”…says me. Maybe that is what my life is about right now. “Stay”.

There are MANY scriptures that speak to “abiding” and “waiting” …with our eyes fixed on Jesus, and our hope placed in him alone. How does this get developed within us if not through learning to “stay”…and that within an environment of distraction…

Maybe if I can eventually learn this, God can be confident to take me anywhere…

Posted under Transformation

Ecclesiaties 7:29 “This alone is my conclusion: God has created man straightforward, and human artifices are human inventions.” (The Jerusalem Translation)

According to Merriam-Webster an artifice is:

1 a : clever or artful skill : ingenuity <believing that characters had to be created from within rather than with artifice — Garson Kanin> b : an ingenious device or expedient
2 a : an artful stratagem : trick b : false or insincere behavior <social artifice>

Maybe a David E translation of this passage would be…”life is simple, but we complicate it.”

Transformation then, must be a return to the simple.

I think the simplest way to understand life is that it is not ours. We did not create it. We are dependent for birth, breath, heartbeat…and when we move away from an understanding of dependence…things get complicated.

Posted under Transformation

“I waited and waited and waited for God. At last he looked; finally he listened… Now God, don’t hold out on me, don’t hold back your passion. Your love and truth are all that keeps me together. When troubles ganged up on me, a mob of sins past counting, I was so swamped by guilt I couldn’t see my way clear. More guilt in my heart than hair on my head, so heavy the guilt that my heart gave out. Soften up, God, and intervene…” (Psalm 40 MSG)

It feels like it has been a long time since I have “heard” from God. OR…maybe I am just more contented in knowing who I am to Him…less fearful…less in need of His constant intervention…more willing to simply walk with Him…even in silence.
Surely He owes me nothing. Life is difficult, for various reasons, for all of us. Most self-employed people either don’t make it at all, or find themselves with negative bank balances perpetually. Not every venture will succeed…though I am not sure that I even know what success truly is. My whole world is about words, and I have experienced how perspectives are revolutionized with a simple re-ordering of word sequence. One word change, or even a single comma, can make all the difference. How do you measure the impact one positive word in the life of another, and what price is acceptable?

As David said in Ps 39:5… “You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath.”

One key to transformation must be an arrival at this understanding: If my life is but a breath, there is much more at play here than me.

Posted under Transformation