The full text as prepared for the Sunday, December 2, 2012 message:
The seasons, as they come and go, give us pause to think about the mystery of transformation.
The seasons, as they come and go, give us pause to think about the mystery of transformation.
As we move from summer to fall, fall
to winter, winter to spring, we see that life is continues to unfold. In
other parts of nature we see this transformation as well.
Think about
the little frog and where it had its beginnings. It begins as a little
egg. In the fullness of time, that
little egg will burst forth and a tadpole will appear.
Have you ever
gone to a pond and watched the little tadpoles. When I was young I
couldn’t fathom that a tadpole that looked like a little fish would grow legs
and walk, so to speak.
The same
mystery of transformation unfolds in the butterfly. A little butterfly
begins as an egg. Then, out of the egg
comes a little wiggly thing that is furry and has lots of legs – we call it a
caterpillar. Then, when it feels an
inner push, it will make a chrysalis around itself. Out of that chrysalis
will emerge a winged creature that flies.
One thing
swims and then walks. Another walks and then flies. Those are astounding transformations!
What about us?
What about our transformation? Can we transform our relationship with
ourselves from human to divine/
We may call
ourselves “just a human being.” Then the day comes when we want the
experience of our life to be different from what it has been.
We think to ourselves in some form or
another, “There must be a better way,” and so begins our search for
transformation.
For there to be any real change we
eventually come to the understanding – whether we are aware of this particular
piece of scripture, or not, that we must change the way we think about the
world.
The scripture I am referring to is
Romans 12:2, “Do not be transformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what
is the good and acceptable and perfect.”
Whether we are consciously aware that
we must change the way we see the world, or all we know is that there must be a
better way and we begin to change our current ways, we kind of go though
several layers of thought:
(1) We say, “I’m not just a human
being. I’m a being with the Creators potential.” We begin to see the child of God seed
unfolding.
(2) Then the day comes when we think
of ourselves as more than just a weak person with potential – we think of
ourselves as a child of God, just as Jesus said we were.
Getting to the point where we are
able to integrate the human and the divine our hardest task will be to dissolve
the critical, crippling, self-negativity that may be trapping us; keeping us
bound to the idea that we were only
human.
Don Colbert, M.D. author of Deadly
Emotions: Understand the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection That Can Heal or Destroy
You, writes "I've worked with countless people who have discovered
that once they made a sincere effort to tackle their dysfunctional
thought patterns, they had fewer bouts of depression, anxiety, anger, grief,
shame, jealousy, and all other toxic emotions. It isn't difficult to replace
lies with God's truth. It just takes intentional and consistent effort.” And a
few sentences later he references a way out, “Jesus promised, "If you
abide in my Word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free (John 8:31-32)."”
What are some of the lies we tell
ourselves?
1. I’m a loser
2. Someone else ought to take care of me
3. I need to protect myself
4. I know I’m right
5. I’ll never get what I want
6. I’ll start tomorrow
7. I will be happy when/if…
8. It’s all their fault
9. I’ll try
10.
Making
a mistake will ruin my life
When we
see the world “backwards” we think that what our five physical senses pick up
influences our thoughts. Eventually
you’ll come to see that is backwards… because by changing your thoughts
patterns you change your experience of what’s “out there.”
These five
physical senses are like gates through which thought flows. You might say that
there are five “gates” of thought. They
would be the five senses with the eyes and ears being the most dominant gates.
What flows
out through the gates from the mind is exactly what flows back in through the
gate to our awareness. We have to guard
these gates carefully 24/7/365 (or in the case of 2012, 366), and it is vital
to remember that what is coming in through those gates is a product of our
thinking… is a mirror of what flowed out from the mind. That’s mind is the birthplace of all
experience.
John 8:31-32
counsels us, “If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free.”
But what
if you’re stuck in one or more of those ten ways we lie to ourselves (or any
way other than those 10)… and you think that God; that applying the truth,
could never straighten out my life? If
you think you can’t change, watch this.
I would
like three volunteers to help me demonstrate a point.
Here I
have several strands of wire. The wire
can be bent into just about any shape.
Imagine if you will that this piece of wire is your conscious awareness
of God. You are at one end and God is at
the other. Your connection together is
straight and uncomplicated; clear; no kinks, no nasty twists or turns. Your connection is straight and direct.
In this
metaphor, you are responsible for keeping the lines of connection straight,
clear and open. God is constantly
communicating to you and it’s up to you to keep the path unimpeded… which you
can do if you don’t place any barriers in the way… any kinks, twists turns,
etc. (guilt, fear, shame, projection, unwillingness to listen, etc.)
I’m going
to ask my assistants to twist and shape the wire to symbolize what they think a
life outside of the awareness of the power and presence of God might look like.
Let’s
remember John, “…know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”
(At this
point in the service I asked the volunteers to put their twisted wires into a
pan of heated water and the wires immediately straightened out. I used a wire called Nitnol which is an alloy
comprised of nickel and titanium. One of its properties is that it returns to
its original shape once its heated – in this case by being placed in a Pyrex
dish of heated water placed on an overhead projector so everyone could first
see the twisted wires and then see them “magically” become straight.)
When we
bathe ourselves in truth, when we bathe ourselves in thinking with God, when we
bathe ourselves in extending love through those gates of which we are in
charge, when we bathe ourselves thinking that which we know (trust) to be, as
Paul put it, the, “good acceptable and perfect,” the awareness of our
connection with God in our life will have as Dr. Colbert wrote, “fewer bouts of
depression, anxiety, anger, grief, shame, jealousy, and all other toxic
emotions. It isn't difficult to replace lies with God's truth. It just takes intentional
and consistent effort” and passion.
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