Changed...Renewed...Transformed

I recently met someone who had such a profound impact on my life that even I don’t fully understand what has happened.   He has forever changed my life.  He opened me up to things I never thought I’d be around and brought out feelings in me I never thought were possible.   He has completely changed me in his coming and has completely changed me in our current distance. 

The reason why I say this is because at this moment he has no idea the impact he has made on my life.  He has no idea that I have cried tears of sorrow and tears of joy since first meeting him.  I tried to explain to him one time, exactly what he has done for me but his mind was not open to receiving good information about himself. 

You see the person that I am speaking about has a drug problem, a who am I problem, a self-esteem problem, am I worthy problem, a problem spiritually and a problem asking for help.   This person is being swallowed up by his self-loathing and distance from who he was created by God to be.  He has accepted what the world has said about him and not what God has said about him.

I have a problem sometimes being vulnerable and expressing myself to people who I am completely vulnerable too.  He happens to be one of those few people in my life that I am utterly vulnerable to.  I tried to express what I see in him and what he has brought into my life in the short time of knowing him, and the look of complete shock on his face left sadness in my heart for him.

He doesn’t see what I see when I look at him.  He doesn’t see the light of God in his eyes that I see.  He doesn’t see the abundance of love in his heart that I see.  He doesn’t see the gentle nature that I see.  He doesn’t see the warm spirit that I see.  He doesn’t see a smile that tells you it’s going to be ok, that I see and he doesn’t see the joy that he brings to my life that I see.

I see him through lenses that allow me to see past the world’s assessment of him and into what God has created in him.  I see past the tattoos and muscular physique into the small boy who wants to be accepted and loved. I see past what the years of drug use and low self-esteem has taken from him and I see what God is using him for and restoring to him.  

I see him opposite of how the world sees him; but he sees himself as the world sees him.

In Romans 12:2 Paul is telling us how we are to see ourselves.  How we are to conduct ourselves and what we are to allow influence us and not influence us.

Do not be conformed to this world (this age), fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs), but be transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude), so that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will for God even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you).

His view of himself has run parallel with the view the world has of him, so he has allowed the world to conform his thinking.  He has adapted his life to conform to the worlds thinking as well.  He has made attempts to change his behaviors and his surroundings, but he hasn’t changed his thinking.  He hasn’t changed how he views himself.  He hasn’t declined the worlds thinking and adopted God’s thinking.

When I was reading this verse today all I kept thinking about was this person and the sadness it brings to my heart that he has conformed himself to the world and has allowed the world to change him.   I kept thinking of all the people who have this very same mindset.  Who think that because they have made bad decisions or have used a different set of morals to measure their lives that this is what they have to be, always. 

That’s not true.

You see if that was the case this verse that breathes hope and a promise to those who have made bad mistakes, which is all of us, by the way.  Speaks of change and transformation and renewal.  If those words were omitted we would all be lost but, we are not.  This verse is telling us there is a way to change your view and that’s by renewing your mind.  Changing your mind, restoring your mind. 

There is an aspect of all of us that the world has altered or changed, some deeper than others.   Like my beloved man, he has allowed the worlds view to develop a deep hold on his life, but that doesn’t mean that all is lost to him.  Those words change, restore and transform apply to him as well.   But there is work that we all have to do.

We have to make a decision.  A hard decision but a decision.

You have to stop listening to the words the world wants to attach to you, and start to listen to the words that God says you are.   Can you please read that sentence out loud to yourself five times, slowly?   Hear the words.  Feel the words as they are coming off of your tongue and escaping your mouth.  Listen to them with your heart, mind, soul and spirit and allow them to bury into your inner being.

YOU HAVE TO STOP LISTENING TO THE WORDS THE WORLD WANTS TO ATTACH TO YOU, AND START TO LISTEN TO THE WORDS THAT GOD SAYS YOU ARE!

Big difference.  One is trying to attach or label you with its perspective and limited understanding.  One wants to keep you at its level to not feel threatened or left behind.  The other, God, is calling you as you already are!  God is calling you by the adjectives that describe who you already are and have been since birth.

When we allow the world to tell us what or who we are, we are living by the standards of evil.  We are conforming to a lifestyle that speaks of sex, greed, gluttony, drugs, war, violence, hate, crime and indulgence.  We are speaking of dark places and destructive forces.

When we allow God, our creator to tell us who we already are, we are living by the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.  The things that are good, acceptable and perfect to him will soon become the same to you, once you restore your thinking and actions.  God is the opposite of darkness.  He is of love, light, abundance, joy, peace and fulfillment in Him. 

He is not about shaming you into relationship with him, like evil is.  He is about loving you and restoring you into a relationship with Him.

God wants us to turn from the corruptible things of this world, and look towards Him for our source and supply.  He wants us to conform to His ways and image and shun the evil things that are running rampant in the world.   This is His perfect will for your life.  Not to hurt you but to love on you till you are healed and made whole through Him.

I wish there was a way to change the mirror for the man who changed my life.  I wish there was a way for him to look through my eyes and see what I see.  I am sure if that was the case, he wouldn’t have walked away from love and back into darkness.  

Many times God gifts us with people in our lives to teach us things and we often wonder what the lesson was for the other person.   I know that in this occasion this lesson isn’t over, it’s just on hiatus and one day he will come to me asking for help to find his way back to God and away from the destructive forces that the world has offered.

I will leave you with this, as this one has been probably the hardest for me to write.  I’ve even found myself gingerly touching the keys in writing about this, but God put it on my heart, so I needed to share the words.  Keep in mind when we stumble across people who are looking at themselves through the eyes of the world, they are the people Jesus sent us to help. 

These people that the world has engulfed, swallowed, chewed up and devoured. These are among the people that God has called us to love.  These are the people that God has asked us to be Light and Salt too.  Please keep all of this in focus when you judge someone who has made poor decisions or looks differently than you do. 

Ask yourself, as I do now, am I being like the world or am I indeed transformed (changed) by the (entire) renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude), so that you may prove (for yourselves) what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect (in His sight for you).