Transformation is a familiar theme in the Christian community.  Passages of scripture like Romans 12 make it clear that the goal of followers of Jesus is to become like him, so it just makes sense that in order to become more like Jesus, there is going to be a process that changes us from who we are today, into who we will be once we are “transformed”.  Understanding the need for transformation is easy.  The actual process of transformation…..not so much!

Think of a time in your life where things were comfortably predictable, when there was a heartbeat and rhythm to life that made sense and things just felt right.  Now remember that day when you woke up and said, “God, I have an idea…let’s stir things up a bit today and throw in some unexpected chaos to make me conform more to your image.”

No.  No, you don’t remember that day because who would invite chaos into their home…their families….their health….I know I wouldn’t!  But it’s impossible to deny that for the follower of Jesus, those are precisely the times when we cling to him the fiercest.  It’s when we need him desperately that we focus intensely on who he is, what his very nature is, and are able to absorb his love and his mercy in the deepest of ways.

My daughter just wandered past me and asked what I was writing about for Day 28.  When I told her I was thinking about transformation, she remembered this being the theme to an annual church conference our family had attended around 5 years ago, and then realized how radically, how insanely and how unanticipatorily (if it’s not a word, it should be!) different our lives are today than they were then…..My mind immediately went to the obvious….her car accident and how the Warren 4 are now 3….and then the oh so familiar sorrow that realization brings!  But then she added that not ALL things are worse today, that there have actually been positive changes for all of us born of tragedy….

I recently heard speaker and author Sarah Bessey ask this about transformation, “Do I just admire Jesus, or do I follow Jesus?  Do I not think he enjoys the process of my transformation?  It’s not about the results, it’s the beauty of the process…”

The beauty of the process…..even when it’s painful?

Yes.

To be followers of Christ – to be transformed into women and men who bear his image, we are going to have to accept that things can’t stay the same.  They just can’t.

But here’s the good news….that’s where this song by Mercy Me reminds us that those are the places where glory meets our suffering – when the hurt and the healer collide.  I like knowing that Jesus is not only with me in what so often is a painful process of transformation, but he is cheering me on, and he isn’t waiting at the finish line with a stopwatch.  He’s right beside me, no matter how halting my steps or broken my spirit.

We’re doing it together.  <3

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The Hurt & The Healer
Mercy Me