"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
When I was growing up in Ohio my brothers and I were big into caterpillars and butterflies. In the Spring we would take our nets out into the fields in search of whatever varieties of butterflies were missing from our collections. (Can you imagine letting your 2nd or 3rd grader do that unsupervised today?) For whatever reason, we were always interested in Swallowtails -- and particularly in Tigers and in the always elusive Zebra Swallowtail.
In fact, the best part really wasn't catching adult butterflies. What was cool about this particular hobby was catching caterpillars, setting up habitats for them (which we fashioned out of cardboard boxes), and raising them to adulthood.
Watching the caterpillars hang from leaves and then encase themselves in chrysalises was really an amazing thing to witness. But, the best part, of course, was watching the butterflies emerge. (Just so you know, a butterfly emerges from a chrysalis, and a moth from a cocoon).
We would check on the chrysalises frequently, and at some point they would begin to wiggle. This, naturally, would tell us that the rebirth was near. We got pretty good at gauging the speed of the process, and we often had the opportunity to pull a chrysalis off a leaf and watch the butterfly emerge, dry its wings and fly away -- all in the palms of our hands!
It doesn't take much imagination to see the parallels between the complete transformation of the butterfly -- from an egg, to a caterpillar, to a chrysalis, to a butterfly -- and the transformation that we go through when we truly allow Jesus to be Lord of our lives. ... or does it?
Actually, for people who are outside of the faith (and for new believers) I think it is almost impossible to appreciate what can happen when Christians really surrender their lives to Christ. And, I think there are at least two reasons for this. The first one is that its hard to understand what you yourself have not experienced.
When my sons were younger, and particularly when they were teenagers, it was nearly impossible at times for them to really "get" the benefit of my experience. In fact, at times when they were thinking about making a bad decision (or, more often, when they had already made a bad decision) I had a little speech I would give them. The speech was intended to be funny, but also to drive home this very point. I would tell them that what they needed to understand was that they were "idiots", but the good news was that they were not alone; that all teenagers were idiots, and that someday they would look back and they would say "Dad was right, we were idiots!" (By the way, both boys are in their twenties now, and each has at one time or another acknowledged that I was indeed right!)
I don't mean to suggest at all that nonbelievers and new believers are idiots -- to the contrary, there are some really intelligent atheists out there. What I am saying is that faith is, in part, experiential. I just don't think you can appreciate the life-changing power of a relationship with Christ unless you have seen it or experienced it for yourself. This is why it is so important that we share our testimonies about what God has done for us. Sometimes it is painful, and it requires a transparency to which the world is not accustomed. But, it is so critical.
You can talk about the Gospel all you want -- until you are blue in the face -- and get nowhere. But people have a much harder time rejecting a power that restores marriages, that breaks the bondage of addiction, that ends depression and sickness, that brings hope and purpose to life .... People have a hard time arguing with actual transformation.
The second reason why I think it is so difficult for nonbelievers and new believers to appreciate the transformation that God can make in their lives is because, sadly, it is sometimes hard to find. What I mean is that the "Christians" the world sees all too often do not appear to have been transformed at all. Their lives look no different than their neighbors. All too often, their only distinguishing characteristic seems to be their ability to speak in Christian-ease.
If you spend enough time with the Bible, though, what you will see is that transformation is not only possible through Christ, but that true faith always results in transformation. I hope I said that plainly enough. Think about that. Time and time again the Bible talks about rebirth, about the fruit of the Spirit, about how to identify people of faith ... about transformation. And here is what is really cool -- the transformation process never ends!
I have undergone some pretty radical transformation in the last ten years -- just ask my wife. But something funny happened just a few weeks ago. I mentioned to my Wednesday night class that a lady had approached me a couple of Sundays earlier, and had commented on how much I had changed in the last six months! When she said this I was completely taken aback. I had no idea what she was talking about. Even more surprising, the entire Wednesday night class agreed with her!
I am not mentioning this to pat myself on the back. How could I even think of taking credit for something of which I was completely unaware? I am still not exactly sure what those people were talking about. But, they are all my friends -- they know me. Whatever it is I accept it. More than that, I praise God for it.
Have you been transformed? If not, maybe now is the time to get serious about your faith.
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