Change

One of the great ironies of living in New England is our Fall. All around us we are seeing evidence of God’s beauty as the leaves change color. Yet many New Englanders think the word “change” is a four-letter word. Mention change in a New England church and the automated response immediately comes up, “but we’ve always done it this way.”

It’s funny that the classic New England picture is a downtown church painted white with a beautiful tree next to it in peak color. Change and church can sometimes be associated with oil and water.

Yes it’s true, there are many things we don’t want to change. Yet God desires that we change. We don’t call it change though, we call it transformation. God doesn’t want us to stay the way we are, He wants us to be transformed. And He’s doing the work to make it happen. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Our ultimate goal is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. The way we do that is by intentionally striving to be transformed to look like Jesus. We look to Jesus with the desire to be like Jesus and the Holy Spirit does the transforming work. The more we look like Jesus in our life, the more we glorify God.

Maybe the picture of the downtown church next to a beautiful tree is not so ironic after all. Maybe it’s the perfect image to remind us of what we strive to be—changed. Oops, sorry. Bad word.

Transformed.