What does it mean to experience a transformation of the mind? Do we rely on Conventional wisdom or do we break free from it? Are we living saved and following Christ or trying to stay in our old ways?
John 7: 9-13
9 Having said these things to them, He stayed in Galilee.10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as if, in secret. 11 So the Jews were seeking Him at the feast and were saying, “Where is He?” 12 There was much grumbling among the crowds concerning Him; some were saying, “He is a good man”; others were saying, “No, on the contrary, He leads the people astray.” 13 Yet no one was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
Today I will discuss the second question I proposed in Grumblings:
How often do we cause others to start thinking outside of “conventional wisdom”?
What exactly is conventional wisdom? To me, it is anything that is normal to us. We all have our certain way of doing things, no matter how defined or undefined that may be, we cannot ignore the fact that we all have a certain “rhythm” so-to-speak as to how we think, what we believe, and why we do what we do. If you have ever heard any of my teachings, I often quote a phrase from a book I read over the past year or so, “Live a life worth questioning and when asked, give the apt reply.” For me, this is who I define getting people to think outside of their own conventional wisdom.
As Christians, we are called to Live Saved. What does this mean? It means a “transformation of your mind.”
This is a concept I learned from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans. When we have been transformed by the renewing of our mind in Christ (notice I didn’t say that we transform ourselves), our life begins to change. The things we do change, the way we think changes, and we no longer “fit in”. We aren’t meant to because we no longer are a part of this world. We might be in the world, but are no longer of the world.
So then, how is it we are living now as a result of this transformation? Are we still trying to hold onto things of this world? Are we still trying to keep our old habits because it defines us (or used to, anyway)? James would say that someone like this is double-minded. I know that when I finally committed to following Christ, things didn’t feel the same anymore. The things I did, the words I said, the music I listened to, the people I hung out with: it all seemed awkward all of a sudden, like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be. It didn’t make sense to me at first. I mean, I had spent my whole life doing these things and now all of a sudden I wasn’t enjoying them anymore. It wasn’t as if I had set out to change everything. I wasn’t trying to cleanse myself of things or people I thought were “bad” and quite honestly, not all of it was, even in the strictest biblical sense. Rather, my mind was being transformed into that which God had designed me to be.
Too often we worry about presenting ourselves holy to God, but we then change it into earning grace instead of simply receiving it. We think we have to do something specific to be worthy, but the fact is we aren’t worthy and never will be. He loves us anyway and once we get over that and act in obedience to His simple command, “follow Me,” then not only will the transformation begin, but we will actually enjoy it! That’s right. We will enjoy the transformation. I think we create all these rules about what to and not to do. These are things that are evident in a transformed life, yes, but we cannot do it on our own and we start to think that by doing these things we will be transformed. NO.
We do these things because we are transformed!
This guy’s transformation was first spiritual and mental before physical!
