Transformation. Conversion. Alteration. What precipitates change? Definitely, hitting-the-wall can. Or a crisis situation in which a human being gets a sudden clear picture of his or her limitations and insufficiencies. A moment of glory, too, can turn us around: a transcendent moment, a revelation of a reality beyond the routine of mundane habit.
There are two memoirs by a great Indiana author Haven Kimmel. One is called A Girl Named Zippy about a little girl who basically (with some help from neighbors, teachers, townspeople and the magazines at the corner news stand) raised herself in the little Indiana town of Mooreland, while her mother sat on the couch and read books from the library. Then one day (book two) her mother got up off the couch, rode her bike from Mooreland to Muncie and signed up for classes at Ball State University. She also lost a lot of weight (probably from all the bike riding) and totally came alive! (She Got Up Off the Couch is actually the name of the book!)
The first question is, “What makes people change?” and the second question is, “What good is a ‘faith’ that doesn’t? Without a transformation, what good is religion?
It his book AHA! about the change-points that actually transform, Kyle Idleman says that there are three stages that are necessary to bring about a life-altering “A-ha!” moment and set us on a new path.
The first is a sudden awakening, a “coming to your senses.” This new realization may be generated by a positive moment, like falling in love, communing with nature, or an undeserved mercy. Or it could be a negative happening, like a near-death experience, a spiraling out of control, or a time of monumental failure. But whatever brings it about there must be a wake-up-stupid jolt into a new awareness.
But it takes more than an alarm clock to change the soul. There also has to be a time—usually a painful time—of brutal honesty. No more rationalizing the truth away. No more blaming someone else. No more living in denial. An awakening worth its salt must bring a coming-to-grips with the real culprit, and, as Commodore Oliver Perry once said, “We have seen the enemy…” and, guess what? The enemy is in the mirror!
But even an awakening and a gut-wrenching honesty will fall short unless we “get up off the couch,” or, as the prodigal in the pigpen put it, “I will arise and go home.” We have to get up and go home—to God, to our messed-up and embarrassing past, to whatever work it will take to us get whole, and, most of all, to the self God created us to be. Even the self-righteous older brother had to do that. He had to swallow his I-can-earn-my-way self-sufficiency and learn to dance!
The really great news is that we have an advocate! The Father has sent us the Holy Spirit of empowerment who will never check out or give up, who will never leave us or forsake us as we make new paths and walk a new way. He is infinitely patient, and will give us the grace to be patient with ourselves when we fall off whatever wagon we once were on. As C. S. Lewis said about this advocate:
“Make no mistake,” He says, “I will make you perfect. The moment you put yourself in My hands, that is what you are in for. Nothing less, or other, than that. You have free will, and if you choose, you can push me away. But if you do not push Me away, understand that I am going to see this job through. Whatever suffering it may cost you in your earthly life, whatever inconceivable purification it may cost you after death, whatever it costs Me, I will never rest, nor let you rest, until you are literally perfect.”
