In my previous entry I ended with the idea that maybe we need other people for our transformation to take place. As I have been reflecting on that more I am starting to understand how true it really is.
Think about what transformation - becoming more like Christ - requires. Transformation requires us to get out of the way so that God can do his work in us. We have to empty ourselves. We have to be willing to follow Christ to the cross, where he poured out his life for all mankind.
I would venture to say that nothing empties us faster than other people. And while I would like to think that I do love God sacrificially, that love is made truly evident through my attitudes and actions on behalf of family, friends, coworkers and people I don't even know.
When I make a personal sacrifice to benefit someone else it transforms me. As I practice generosity or kindness or patience, as hard as it may be at first, eventually it becomes easier and I start to experience joy. The joy is the evidence that I am changing.
Maybe an example would help me explain: Back when I had Friday afternoons free some young girls would come to my house for sewing lessons. A couple of them needed to be picked up and dropped off. I enjoyed the hours at my house sewing, but for various reasons I resented the time running to get them and take them home. Then one day I realized that I needed to consider the providing of rides as an opportunity that God was giving me to show love to the girls and their family.
Through the change in my thinking I came to find joy in that time in the car. I since have extended that attitude toward other “inconveniences.” That contribution to my transformation, small as it may seem, could not have happened without those girls in my life.
They taught me to love better.
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