What is true transformation? Is it possible? As Christians, we often speak these lengthy words without seriously considering their meaning.
When my husband and I left our beloved farm home, exchanging it for small town living, we firmly held our list of “must haves” and “don’t wants.” Some things on our list were extremely practical given our advancing age and experience in caring for elderly parents. No stairs to navigate, main floor laundry, small footprint, and garden space held top place among our wants. After building our farm home from the foundation up, we held no desire to enter into any major renovation projects.
God’s priority list, however, looked quite different from ours.
We ended up with a forty-year-old house with cracked windows, grungy carpets, and a less than a practical floor layout. It turned out to be the perfect home and location for us! Every year, we embarked on some kind of renovation project. After ten years, we had completely updated and renovated every square inch, inside and out. When it finally worked wonderfully for us and our lifestyle, we sold! Before and after pictures revealed the depth of the transformation.
Transformation means to undergo a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance — a metamorphosis of sorts. As Christians, transformation is that life-long process of Christ being formed in us.
“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord — who is the Spirit — makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.“
2 Corinthians 3:16-18
Spiritual Process
Do you hear the allusion of process in the words “makes us more and more like him?”
Our farmhouse didn’t build itself. Neither did our town home undergo its own renovations year by year. It took a builder with a plan. It also took people, perhaps slightly crazy but completely willing, to cooperate to do the work. Sometimes designs slightly changed as we went along, but we firmly held to our vision and desired goal. With our farmhouse, we first demolished an abandoned multi-level century home to salvage material for the new build. With the town house, we ripped walls down to the framing, installed new plumbing and electrical components, and even moved walls when necessary. There were no short cuts. It took hours of intensive labor. The process also came with a cost.
Often, renovations of the heart bear a similar resemblance. We may tolerate inconveniences for a while, but, sooner or later, we know we must begin the deep and often difficult work of exposing core issues for transformation to become possible.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
Romans 12:1-2
“Let God transform you,” the writer encourages us. “Submit to the wisdom of the Master Builder.” he challenges.
“If we let Him — for we can prevent Him, if we choose — He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a … dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.”
– C.S. Lewis
Transformation
C.S. Lewis touches on a few great points. We choose. We will either let God do what He longs to do within us, or we will deny Him access to the full content of our hearts and minds. By His grace, as we submit to Him, He works within us little by little.
In every renovation project, we found things that made us scratch out heads in disbelief — faulty or slipshod workmanship, garbage stuffed between studs to avoid taking it to the dump, substandard materials, piping or wiring that went no where … Oh, friends, what must our fleshly human heart look like to God? We may not fully realize the depth of the spiritual renovation that is necessary, but God sees every hidden thing within us. He loves us far too much to leave us in our dilapidated state of ruin and disrepair!
“My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”
Galatians 4:19
In some senses, we don’t throw away everything. We retain those attributes and attitudes that already reflect the character of God. But we must be ruthless at discarding those things that continue to hinder our present call and future spiritual development in Christ. The cost of transformation often comes through suffering. As C.S. Lewis said, “The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that is what we are in for. Nothing less.”
Oh! How we resist the process and pain to our own detriment!
God’s Love
God never delights in seeing His children suffer. However, when suffering knocks on the door of our lives, God won’t waste it if we allow Him to use it.
Often in the renovation process, we pulled out the heavy tools of force — nail pullers, pry bars of every length and description, and reciprocating saws. Long spikes bent and screeched as they were forced from their long-held positions. Walls vibrated against the cutting edge of the saw’s teeth.
My heart aches under the process of change in the same way. My mind struggles to grasp the new and release the old. But in the suffering, comes freedom and transformation.
“Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Romans 5:1-5
Because God loves us, He uses the hard stuff of life — the problems and trials — to transform us, changing us into His likeness. If for no other reason, this alone gives us hope and reason to rejoice.
Prayer
Lord, may we have yielded hearts, submitted to Your will and ways. Transform us, Lord, from the inside out, conforming us to Your perfect plan. Leave no part unredeemed and unrestored. We welcome You to come and do in us what only You can do. We echo the words of the psalmist of old, “Create in (us) a clean heart, O God. Renew a joy and steadfast spirit within us. Do not banish us from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from us.” O Lord, restore us, renovate us, remake and remold us into Your image, restoring the joy of Your salvation to us. May we be willing to obey You in the midst of Your radical transformation process in our hearts and minds (Psalm 51:10-12). Grant us peace in the process and joy in the journey no matter how long or difficult that may be.
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