There are six billion people in the world.
Give or take.
Each with a purpose.
A dream.
A fear.
A place.
And I’m learning that there is an increasing need for love and hope and faith in each of these six billion people.
And as someone once said…
“I can’t change the world…but I can change the world in me.”
In fact, by doing it the other way around, I’m actually quite hypocritical.
Plain and simple.
Serving the world while serving myself?
Heal the broken while I hide my own brokenness?
Impossible.
Inconsistent.
Action without personal transformation is empty.
And transformation without action is impossible.
===
Comments
20 responses to “Transformation”
“It’s about as useless as a screen door on a submarine
Faith without works, it just ain’t happenin’ baby”
(Rich Mullins, Screen Door)
Some of the works are the works we (need to) do on ourselves…the whole log/speck thing.
I (need to) keep working on this, God’s Kingdom needs me to as well.
David?s last blog post..Worship : Easter Weekend
I agree that we shouldn’t be hiding ourselves. Knowing Jesus means being open, honest, and willing to go and be where he leads. But I don’t think that action without transformation is always empty for others. For ourselves, yes. But I know I have been helped by some truly broken and “stuck” people, as well as I look back and see that God has used me when I have been in those times. I think that people (and I personally) can get down because we aren’t seeing or striving towards transformation. But Jesus uses even the broken. That’s what is so amazing about him.
Thanks for this post- we should be submitting ourselves to the Father.
Andrea?s last blog post..Disbelief and Questions
Great thoughts Andrea. I think I was looking at it more from a perspective of 1 Corinthians 13 where we can do all these things but without love, it’s meaningless. For sure many broken people have been amazing examples of love in my own life…so in a way, I think transformation is happening…it’s when it’s legalistic, routine, or out of obligation that represents the action that is empty.
anne jackson?s last blog post..Transformation
Hey Anne, great post as always! A lot of times we love while being obedient without even knowing it.
Take Mark 16 for example…the Mary’s and Salome were simply going to annoint Jesus’ body and their only question to one another was “who’s gonna roll the stone away?” And to their surprise Jesus had risen.
I feel that if we were to start by being obedient, we’d end up being so surprised by what God will do with that. The Mary’s weren’t being legalistic or complaining about what they were doing, they were simply acting out of love.
This can be contagious and my fiance and I were just speaking yesterday about how we can set aside money outside of our tithe to give and to help in places like India, and Somalia and Myanmar. It’s incredible what God will do when we begin to focus outward by surrendering what we hold captive inwardly.
Josiah?s last blog post..Grandfather Mountain
yup. the truth – the convicting truth – of this conjurs up John 15, and why he gave so much space in his writing to abiding.
Hi Anne- I love this post. A prayer I have been praying almost daily is that God would remove my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh, that he would move my spirit and my emotions to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good, and that he would put his spirit in me each and every day, or else my own striving toward transformation will fall short. Thanks for starting this conversation. Im excited to see what others have to say!
-ALW
AnnieLaurie?s last blog post..A Tribute?
Totally read the post for the Smitty video. :)
Kevin?s last blog post..Easter Foolishness
I find Surrender and Brokenness to be two issues the church tends to de-emphasize on a regular basis.
Sad because to me, they are of utmost importance. Dying to self daily, laying down our rights, etc. Rom. 6-8 and Ga;l. 2:20 are my guides in this.
Rick Apperson?s last blog post..He is Alive!
I know for me its often the action that precedes the transformation. Sometimes we have to take steps of obedience before we really understand why (this really comes to light in parenting little ones).
I’ve found that God will, at times, reward our obedience with understanding, which leads to heart change and transformation.
I think it’s true. “Action without personal transformation” smacks of the Pharisees’ gig, doing all the right things (including giving to the poor, going to church, etc. etc.) but their hearts were full of junk. Out of the overflow of our hearts is where we really speak and live….
The “transformation without action is impossible” is TOTALLY consistent with everything about the gospel of the kingdom. The EVIDENCE you have been changed is the way you live and treat others and the world around you. The whole “faith w/o works is dead” thing is really underestimated. It’s too easy in our churched-out culture to get away with looking “christian” or even “transformed” without really living much out.
Brian?s last blog post..Easter Monday and The Church Year
This post had me really thinking. Good one.
Joey?s last blog post..The Power of Touch
“Heal the broken while I hide my own brokenness?”
That thought has actually been on my mind lately. It stems from a similar question I posed in an entry I posted last June (http://restoredtograce.com/2008/06/28/wearing-shorts-and-flip-flops-to-church/ ).
During the last few weeks, Pastor Tim (Liquid Church) spent some time in Ethiopia, checking out the wells we funded through our friends at charity: water. After returning from his trip, he decided to scrap the sermon series he originally planned for next month and go with one called “Lub Dub: Echoing God’s Heart.”
God’s heart is breaking over the fact that those among his children who are called out are not doing anything to help the weak.
If there are six billion people in the world, and 1.1 billion of them are without clean drinking water. . . and access to clean drinking water is only $20 per person. . . why are there still 1.1 billion people without access to clean water?
Sorry for going off on a tangent there. I’ll come back to topic.
I totally hear ya there. James wrote “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Does it mean we’re “unsaved”? I doubt that. But I do believe that our actions are a huge indication of our faith.
Such great thoughts. I think, far too often, we are concerned about our calling that we don’t take the time to work out our own hurts, character issues and fears. I’m guilty of that. I am thankful though…it seems lately that God has strategically taken me on a course of working through some of these.
danielle?s last blog post..A Stinky Story
Anne, I love this post you wrote today. To me, everyone who competes in the race of transformation at all, when we run we exercise self-control in the very things you mentioned.. (I Cor. 9:24-27) Only one receives the prize and it’s because we all run in such a way to win. It’s a choice for me to be transformed into His likeness. I know I’ll win!
Carol?s last blog post..Honoring Anne Jackson for my 700TH blog!!!!
@brad…isn’t obedience an action based on transformation?
Transformation without action is impossible. Very true. Transformation only arrives when one works toward your own life’s purpose. Usually that purpose is a form of giving, such as the course you are on. I look forward to your post from India.
Nick
Nick Grimshawe?s last blog post..Channeling Abraham: Sunday Inspirational Video
Interesting how the same thought can work itself out differently and through such different scriptures. I was thinking of James as I read the original post (I’m currently making my way through James). I think that it can vary from person to person. Some are natural lovers and it is very easy for them to act on love though they themselve may not be personally transformed by it. And some are doers and it is easy for them to act out even without love.
Kenyon?s last blog post..Culture: Create v. Dictate
@Anne Thanks for resp. I totally get that! :)
Andrea?s last blog post..Practicing the ways of Jesus
my friend ben sollee has a song where he says (referring to his dad) “he never changed the world; but he sure changed mine” it’s funny how the whole planet is really just groups of people who know (and hopefully care for) each other.