Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, part 1.
You are the way you are
because that’s the way you want to be.
If you really wanted to be any different,
you would be in the process of changing right now.
–Fred Smith
Repentance.
We used to use that word: repentance.
We used to couple repentance with God’s Grace, especially those of us who are happily Wesleyan.
I’d like to think together with you about this for a couple of days.
But I keep tripping over those two sentences above, from Fred Smith. Seems to me he’s really writing about stasis, which is defined as “a state of equilibrium among opposing forces…stat´ic.”
Ouch.
Anybody else? Feel free to reply, and I’ll see you back here soon.
joescheets 
Well, Prevenient Grace is that which is drawing and luring us toward repentance long before we even recognize there’s a problem (in what psychologists call the “precontemplation” stage of change).
LikeLike
Exactly, Willie, you happily Wesleyan Christ-follower you! Takes one to know one, eh?
And so here we are, in the words of our Ordination Questions, “going on to perfection.” Always going on. Unless we’re stalled at some point. Again, ouch.
LikeLike
I don’t like it but I think that Fred Smith’s comment is right on the mark. I most often feel that I am not all God has called me to be. I think about that a lot but I don’t do a lot of changing.
LikeLike
Know what ya mean, Janet. All too well!
LikeLike
I’m right there with you, Janet.
LikeLike
What inspires us to change? Janet? We can keep trying. Thank God!
LikeLike
“Going on to perfection” is, like it or not, an ongoing condition of our Faith (if I’m Wesleyan, so be it, after all he is closer to the heart of my Faith than the constant “changes” of the UMC, I can’t seem to shake it). Perfection (what Christ calls us to) as a noun bears this first definition as a noun, “1.
the state or quality of being or becoming perfect.” (Dictionary.com and Webster’s). Empahsis is to be placed on the “becoming perfect.”
I once said in a lay sermon that, “we are called to perfection which is a journey and not a destination.” (Me, 1998). It is my deeply held belief, correct me if I am wrong, but as a human being, achievement of perfection (third definition in perfection Dictionary.com “3. a perfect embodiment…of something.”) will come in transformation — “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed…” I Corinthians 15:51 —
I have a favorite Choral piece we performed at Cahokia UMC when I was a member there (1982 – 1989).
“We shall all be changed, caught up to heaven in a cloud of glory.
We shall all be changed, transformed in victory.
Death, where is thy sting? God conquered death and hell.
We shall all be changed…” (“Changed” Linda Lee Johnson/Tom Fettke)
Right now, I am in a place where I know I am not all that God has called me to be, but some of those “changes” were not of my making and the removal was devastating to my spirit, but not to my Faith. My abilities are under repair (as is my physical and emotional health), but my Faith is constantly changing up.
Too many topics?
LikeLike