|
What does an invitation to be spiritually transformed look like?
The apostle Paul quoted a first-century hymn that described Jesus' own transformation from heights too lofty to fathom:
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:5-8).
The transformation of Jesus, described in this ancient hymn, might be "reverse engineered" to describe the spiritual transformation of men and women:
Jesus shared God's nature;
he did not regard his divine
opportunity and
power and
privilege
things to be clenched, and
so surrendered them;
he partook of the nature of man.
You and I have the nature of man;
let's not regard our mortal
opportunity and
power and
privilege
things to be clenched, and
so surrender them; in Jesus,
we might partake of the nature of God.
To be spiritually transformed in Jesus is to stop counting and striving and grasping, to pour out and to defer, to live and to die with a cruciform-shaped love. If we, like Jesus, empty ourselves--surrendering the structures and guardians and identifiers of our "False Selves"--we will discover renewed passion, patience, and compassion.
Where are you clenching? Where might you surrender?
| 
