TRANSFORMATION”

            She was not the nicest person.  It had something to do with her alcoholic husband.  It had something to do with years of working a full-time job, being a full time co-dependent.  Her power at the local church was incumbent on her being the “go to” person.  But she was also the “go to” person for gossip and negative comments about others.  I remember the day she changed.  It was shortly after her husband died.  Maybe it was clearing all the hidden bottles found in the walls and rafters of the garage.  Maybe it was being tired of being tired.  But she changed.

            What made the transformation so wonderful was who she became.  She went from being always complaining and always talking about things to just wanting people to be kind to one another.  What made the transformation so difficult was that other members, who knew how to “work her” no longer had their easy source to foster their complaints and begin their “fires” at the church.  They couldn’t hide behind her.  So they got angry with her.  They began not to ask her to help with things.  Eventually, that little group pushed her out of every position she had once run.  In one of my last visits with her, she told me that it was actually quite refreshing.  One of the reasons she had been in some of the positions was simply to get information and then use it.  Now she had a purpose that was life-bringing and no longer destructive.

            One of the key beliefs in our faith is that God can bring life to any situation.  We say we believe that things, and people, can change.  But one of the hardest things for us to do is allow that person to become new.  This is because when they change—we have to change.  We can no longer work with them the same way we did before.  We see them with all of our memories; they look the same; why don’t they act the same?  We have to take a risk of faith, and of trust, to believe that the “leopard” now has new spots.  Sometimes, even worse, we give them less rope than before, so that they now have to be more perfect, even as before we dealt with them before in their imperfection.

            Transformation is such a challenging concept for us in our faith.  We are told scripturally that one of the goals for a mature faith is to be “transformed from one form of grace into another”.  But the rub is that we also like comfort.

Once we have found “stasis”, a type/place/form of behavior that seems to work well for us, we want to live in it.  If you have ever caught yourself thinking or saying to yourself that you wish things were like when you lived….  then you understand the concept that there is a sense of comfort that makes sense for us.  We like not having things too complicated in our thinking.  We crave simplicity, especially in how to respond to things.  Have you ever been at a meeting where you get tired of hearing multiple ideas, only wanting to hear one quick, simple solution to a problem?

            And that is only one of the problems with “stasis”.  What looks to you (or to me) as simple and sensible is actually the result of a very complicated process of living.  Most of live with various forms of dysfunction.  We have to deal with friends and family members who like and don’t like other friends and family members.  We discover that school, our job, even our social relationships, are very complicated.  And once we get to a place where we think we know how to live in that relationship or job, we don’t like having to re-figure it out.

            So when someone changes, or the situation changes, the entire landscape becomes different.  What made sense before now looks difficult.  That is why single friends begin to rapidly change when one of the members begins to date or get married.  That is why a close-knit social group begins to change their activities and frequency of meeting when even one person joins or leaves the group.  And that is why churches look so different every few years.

            For we who are in Christ, it becomes paramount to us to remember that God not only permits for change, but promotes it.  God does not want us to stay the same.  God wants us to become more mature in our faith.  God makes us human; we will age and die.  God wants us to break all forms of injustice and oppression in our lives.  God wants us to stop dysfunctional, destructive personal and other-oriented behavior.  And God breathes outward every day a new Spirit, breathing around us and into us the grace to allow us to become new and the forgiveness which allows us to move on.

            It becomes critical for us to remember that we are called to help God in this work, and allow people to become new.  When they, and we, are willing to change, we MUST (it really is a loving command from God) support them in their transformation.  Especially when we begin to see how loving a person can become, how good they choose to be, we MUST give them the affirmation needed to become whole.  See it as we see a broken leg or a heart surgery.  When something clearly needs to change for our physical wellness, we promote the medicine or the surgery or the therapy needed to create for health.  And when our spirit is broken, or lives in hurt, hatred, or despair, we promote the spiritual change in prayer, in community, and in love.

            When this happens, the person changes.  And yes, at the onset, it becomes a bit frustrating as the “lay of the land” becomes different.  But how wonderful it becomes when we see a fundamentally more healthy and joyful person.  How much more wonderful it becomes when we see that this new health promotes truth, just living, and we discover that there is no need for deception and complication.  Quite frankly, it becomes easier to live in than the old system, even though it takes some time to get used to it.  But it is always more healthy.  That is why transformation is ultimately one of God’s greatest gifts to us.

            To your health and to our mutual life in joy, Pastor Joe