From Transferred to Transformed

     “Get down and give me 300,” barks the drill sergeant. The rookie soldier hits the ground in compliance. It’s been a rough few weeks at boot camp. Sure, he had sort of been a wandering, aimless, undisciplined youth before the army, but not an outlaw. Was all of this harshness really necessary?

     It was my first day as a Kroger employee. “I really don’t have that much experience,” I confessed to my manager in a bid for her patience. “Oh, that’s good!” she replied. I looked at her blankly. “When folks who are transferred from other stores come to work for us, it is always more of a challenge to train them in our ways,” she calmly explained. “They always want to hang on to their old ways of doing things.” “Oh,” I replied in my most enlightened voice.

     Jacob and his family were headed to Bethel (the house of God), but before they left on this journey, Jacob ordered his household to get rid of their idols, clean up and change their clothing. (Genesis 35:2) Jacob was renouncing some things. It was shortly after this that God appeared again to the man called “Deceiver” and reinforced the fact that he was now a “Prince with God’.

     Many times we transfer our hearts over to God and He is so glad that we do but God is not satisfied with just transfers; God is in the business of transformations. Drill sergeants scream, managers deconstruct and God makes tricksters limp because they all understand that transferring without transformation will cause you a lot of struggle and suffering in the long run. Break our wills? Renounce? Relearn? Repent? Yep… it’s painful stuff, but it’s the stuff that good employees, soldiers and princes are willing to do. It’s the way we get from transferred to transformed.

Photo credit: http://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/hoepker-drill-sergeant-web.jpg%3Fw%3D655%26h%3D441

What Happens in the Dark

The lights go out and suddenly you find yourself groping around for a familiar piece of furniture to give a mental map of the territory that you must now blindly navigate. With the darkness come confusion, fear, frustration, vulnerability and dependence. You are no longer able to move about freely or to work at liberty; one goal now tends to consume your thoughts and that is to find a source of light.

Everyone goes through seasons of life when the lights go out. We can see this to be the case even in the lives of Biblical heroes. Joseph gets thrown into prison, Samson goes into captivity, David experiences betrayal by his own son, Hannah is cruelly persecuted by an arrogant family member, Ruth loses her husband, Esther faces racial prejudice, Moses deals with rebellious followers, Paul sits in the dungeon.. the list is long. Just like us, all these people had to deal with the pain and fear that come with emotional darkness, but each of them came out of the obscurity to see the light of day. It depends on us what happens in the darkness; we can give up, pout, lose our faith, become angry, take on a victim mentality, plot revenge or we can let the darkness be the background that accents the beauty of all that is light. What can happen in the dark? We can grow a deeper faith, develop new skills, learn new lessons, find new friends, chart a new course, take on a new determination, gain a deeper understanding, become more grateful, empathize more fully and gain a new appreciation for the light! One thing is for sure; whatever happens in our darkness will be reflected once the light returns. In fact, most of what is seen in the light is all about what happens in the dark.

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Lo Que Pasa en la Oscuridad

La luz se va y de repente te encuentras buscando un mueble conocido para dar un mapa mental del territorio que ahora tienes que navegar sin ver nada. Con la oscuridad también vienen sentimientos de confusión, temor, frustración, vulnerabilidad y dependencia. Ya no puedes moverte sin restricción ni trabajar con libertad. Hay nada más una meta en tu mente y esa es la esperanza de encontrar un recurso de luz.

Todos pasamos por tiempos en la vida cuando se apagan las luces. Podemos ver que aún los héroes de la Biblia pasaron por etapas de tinieblas emocionales. José es encarcelado, Sansón es tomado cautivo, David vive la traición de su propio hijo, Ana es cruelmente maltratada por una persona arrogante de su familia, Rut pierda a su esposo, Ester se encara con los prejuicios raciales, Moisés trata con seguidores rebeldes, Pablo se encuentra en el calabozo… la lista es larga. Como nosotros, todos ellos tuvieron que tratar con el dolor y temor que vienen con la oscuridad emocional, pero todos ellos salieron de la noche para ver la luz de nuevo.

 Depende de nosotros que pasa mientras estamos en la tenebrosidad. Podemos darnos por vencidos, perder nuestra fe, ponernos enojados, tomar la mentalidad de víctima, tramar la venganza o podemos dejar que la oscuridad sirve como el telón de fondo que da contraste a todo lo luminoso. ¿Qué puede ocurrir en la oscuridad? Podemos profundizar nuestra fe, desarrollar diferentes habilidades, aprender nuevas lecciones, encontrar nuevos amigos, planear una nueva ruta, cobrar una determinación más fuerte, crecer un entendimiento más amplio, ser más agradecidos, mostrar más empatía y ganar un nuevo aprecio por la luz. Una cosa es cierta; lo que pasa en nuestra oscuridad será iluminado cuando la luz regresa. De hecho, la mayoría de lo visible es simplemente un reflejo de lo que pasó mientras estuvimos en la oscuridad.

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The Countdown

It clings to the side of my refrigerator, staring me down as I do the dishes. I swipe a sideway glimpse at its ever-beckoning information and I realize that we are one day closer. What stares at me is a magnetic to-do list that my resourceful daughter decided to convert into her personal Christmas countdown calendar. Every day she diligently updates how many days are left until Christmas and everyday I am reminded that it is closer. When she first started this activity, my initial reaction was anxiety. Oh no! Less then a month and so much to do! However, as my preparation began to match the proximity of the day, my apprehension evolved into an excitement that rivaled her anticipation of this special day. Her project had helped to keep me focused.

Somewhere in God’s unseen realm there hangs a countdown calendar. Maybe it keeps track of the number of days until our promise is fulfilled, until our breakthrough comes, or until our prayer is answered. Sometimes we forget that these things are even on their way and we become distracted by our everyday chores and cares. Forgetfulness fogs our faith. The nation of Israel was oblivious to the fact that God’s countdown clock was clicking and the Messiah was about to appear. He came, and those that sat in darkness didn’t even realize that the electric had come back on, so they continued to sit in their cold and gloom.

There is still a countdown calendar in the heavens and it is marking the days until deliverance comes, light shines, righteousness rules, justice reigns and joy breaks through. One day we will be washing the dishes and look up to realize that the calendar announces ONE, and what a day of rejoicing that will be!

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Flying Sleighs

Rudolph was weird. What made him unique also made him a social reject in the sight of all the normal-nosed reindeer. “What in the North Pole is wrong with his nose?” was the subject of much coffee-counter chatter in the polar region. Rudolph often found himself in tears over the rebuffing of his would-be friends. Was he really that useless? Was he really such a misfit? We all know the ending of this popular story: Santa needs a light to guide his sleigh in the bad Christmas weather and his creative problem solving skills lead him right to Rudolph and his distinctive shining nose. Suddenly Rudolph transforms from the village idiot to the heroic savior of Christmas Express and adults and children have found vicarious joy in this happy ending since 1939.

The misfit phenomenon abounds. Sometimes we feel like misfits because of our circumstances, and sometimes we feel like misfits because of our perceptions, but the truth is that no one wants to feel like a misfit. Misfits feel that they are misunderstood, that their skills, abilities and talents are not of much value- that they can’t ever quite find the right note in the choir of life. Misfits are easily demeaned and exploited by arrogant folk. Misfits are sad because we were all designed by God to desire harmony; disharmony robs our souls of purpose, life and joy. Rudolph is the obvious hero of this Christmas story, but there is a background hero that made it all possible, Santa. Too many leaders today are so self-focused on getting their sleigh to fly effectively that they forget that the solutions to most of their sleigh problems are sitting right in their flocks, their unique talents all aglow, waiting to be discovered. Sadly, Rudolphs are overlooked, the sleigh crashes and burns, the mission fails and leaders don’t understand why. Let’s take a lesson from wise old Santa and remember that jolly old souls are the ones that know sleighs don’t fly by themselves; it takes a team effort, misfits and all!

Sources:

Mays, Robert L. 1939 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

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