Continuing the conversation from yesterday’s post, today I include an excerpt from Dave Johnson’s article which appeared in the current issue of Conversations Journal. The article is entitled: “Can Change Really Happen?”
In Gatlatians 6, Paul was dealing with a group of people who were investing enormous amounts of time and energy into what he refers to as a “good show in the flesh.” In other words, how things looked on the outside was what mattered most to them. I remember discovering that text many years ago, and I realized it was precisely the spiritual environment I had grown up in.
The unspoken motto for how we did our life together was that what matters most is how things appear. The problem with that, among many problems, is that if you are in a system of any kind–in which how things look is what matters most, then I promise you that how things are will never get dealt with. And if how things are on the inside never get dealt with, you will never, never change. It all just stays.
This stuff, this fear, and this sin, it all just stays in here, in the dark, instead of coming into the light where God can heal it, forgive it, and transform it. And before you know it, having people think you are happy becomes more important than actually being happy. Having people think your marriage is great becomes more important than actually having a good marriage.
p. 36
I couldn’t agree more. And I believe that this is a big problem that we all have, being more concerned with image than going deeper. We are Christians, we believe, because we outwardly appear so. (And there is a component of outward appearance, but if you’re main concern is keeping up the facade, you miss the true power of transformation.)
Your post yesterday ended up having me write about God’s power of transformation yesterday in a post called ‘In My Life’. Because yes, I’ve experienced this in a major way. Thanks for leading me to share the story. 😉
All the best!
deb