Vince Deagler

happy new year.  a common refrain these days.  but why?  i’m sure there are many answers.  do you think in part it could be tied to the idea that as the new year approached we did some reflecting, noticed aspects of the status quo we were unhappy with, and fully intend on changing?  the idea being this year will be better because of those changes?  we call those things “new years resolutions”.  i betcha most of us have made them, and many of them have gone the way of the dodo bird.  we have even coined the phrase “you can’t teach an old dog, new tricks”.  sadly, for too many of us, age isn’t the problem.  old dogs, young dogs, in between dogs all struggle with the change process.  is there an answer here?  can we actually pull off real, lasting change in a way we become the men and women we want to be…that god wants us to be?  i say yes.  let me lay out a format that i believe will allow you to do just that.

1.  recognize all real, lasting change starts in our hearts (proverbs 4:23).  in bible times the heart was the core of our being, where the process of thought, emotion, and volition took place.

2.  for real and lasting change to take place the heart/mind has to be renewed (romans 12:1-2, ephesians 4:23).  without this renewal, the fruit of our life will not change.  jesus taught good trees produce good fruit, bad trees produce bad fruit.  to change the fruit from bad to good requires we make the tree good.  that’s a heart/mind issue.

3.  this renewal is the work of the holy spirit in conjunction with the word of god (2 cor. 3:18).  although this is expressed as a passive (we experience the renewing of our mind, we do not do the renewing), please understand we have an important role in the process.  scripture challenges us in many places to control our thoughts to the place we even take our thoughts captive (phil. 4:8, 2 cor. 10:3-5).

4.  as we experience this renewing of our minds, real transformation occurs.  but this transformation will take place over the course of the rest of our life.  the process being described in eph 4:20-24 as the putting off of the old self.  this is because as our mind is renewed we recognize that our desires deceive us and result in a disintegrating life (see also jeremiah 17:9).  putting off allows for the putting on of the life we see embodied in christ, the life the spirit and the scripture calls us to.  but as this process takes place, we need to be patient.  christ referred to the new birth as being “born again”.  just as babies grow, develop, and mature over 20-30 years, or more, so it is with spiritual transformation.  we don’t go from 1 to 10, we go from 1 to 2, then 2 to 3, and then maybe from 3 back to 2 for awhile, etc.  it is not a straight line.  it is often erratic and very much tied to need to know/need to grow moments we all have experienced along the way.

don’t be discouraged by this.  just because its slow and at times erratic doesn’t mean it is not happening.  i often chart the putting off/putting on concept of eph 4 when counseling.  picture putting off as a line trending downward over time.  putting on is just the opposite, it is a line trending upward, but it will intersect with the putting off line at some point in the chart.  now, here’s what we need to recognize.  everything to the left of this intersect reflects i still look more like the old self than the new.  but that’s ok, cause it will not be that way forever.  in chist, as the spirit works on me through the word, a new vince is being formed after the image of christ.  and that means i may be an old dog, but i can, and i am learning new tricks.  and so can you.  may this year be better, because you do.  blessings.  vince