Living Out the Transformed Life

This week I was asked to speak at the Clemson Greek IV. Greek IV is a ministry of InterVarsity that cares for Fraternity and Sorority students on campuses. It was great to be there with Dusty (the Greek IV staff) and see how the Lord is loving on the Greek students and how He is growing the ministry there.

I was asked to speak on the topic of Being Transformed, and directed to the passage in 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 where Paul calls the Corinthians (and us) NEW CREATIONS. As I was pondering this topic I could not stop thinking about Josh's love for the Lions.

Joshua has been a Lion's fan since he was young. And he is alone in that love. We don't know any other fans, and the team has never been inspiring enough to convert people's hearts. Every draft Josh eagerly anticipates who will get drafted. When free agency rolls around he checks Lion news every morning. And every year, every pre-season, every opening weekend Joshua's heart swells with hope. Hope that this will be the year things will turn around. Hope that this will be the year they might squeek into the playoffs. Hope burns in Josh's heart during the summer and through September. He pulls out the HUGE Lion's flag, and puts on his Lion's jersey.

I get the same way when I read scripture or hear sermons about transformation. I get a vision, I sense the fresh air of a transformed life. All the junky parts of myself seem to lose their appeal, their hold, and I hope. I hope that I can be the person that scripture tells me to be. I hope that I too can be like Paul and Peter--giving over my whole life for Christ and the Kingdom. The topic of a transformed life is like my pre-season with the Lions. Full of Hope and excited possibility.

BUT THEN...

every opening weekend, every single one, the Lions fail Josh. A key player gets injured, the defense isn't as tight as it should be, a coaching strategy falls short. They lead through the first part of the game only to give up a touchdown in the last minutes. This past weekend, that happened. In the course of the game the Lions lost their quarterback to a shoulder injury, and then allowed the Bears to score in the last part of the game. To add insult to deep injury, they were able to rally in the last drive down the field and in the final seconds Calvin Johnson catches a TD pass, only to have it taken back by a review of the play. Josh is crushed. This failure leads to next week's and the next and by mid-season Josh has lost all hopes and packs away the Lion's jersey for another year.

Back to me: The day after I hear that inspiring talk about being a transformed person I screw up. I screw up big, I screw up little. I live out the worst part of myself. Selfish and disrespectful with Josh, annoyed and impatient with the kids, I run toward gossiping about a sweet friend or an enemy (gossip about an enemy is just as gross), I give in to lazy thoughts, lazy habits, lazy life. And the hope I had turns into shame, despair and self-hatred. I begin to see the call to be transformed from a cynical, self-protective suit of armor, hating myself for being weak, and ignoring a nagging frustration that God doesn't seem to show up for me like he does for my friends. And I pack away my hope, my excitement over being the person that the Bible calls me to be, that God has freed me to be.

But as I was in this 2 Corinthians passage God challenged me, corrected me, and gave me hope anew that I can be (and actually already am) a fully alive, deeply compelling, transformed person. So over the next week or so I am going to commit to blog every to every other day to talk about what I learned in 2 Corinthians 5. I hope you'll join the conversation.

Here is that glorious catch that was called back!