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Have you ever had a significant “ah-hah” moment? One of mine happened in 2008 in a large classroom filled with graduate students. “Students!” my colleague proclaimed, “Take notice. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.”
In his book A Sense of Urgency, John Cotter states that “change is shifting from episodic to continuous.” Obviously change occurs more often today than it did earlier in history. But is change continuous? If so, we could be in trouble.
Change challenges us.
Change leads to unfortunate behavior. Change may cause us to panic, grow weary and lose hope. Yet, it is possible to navigate change differently. Continuous change offers continuous opportunity to be transformed into new kinds of people. Change requires us to choose. Will we panic and thus dig our head in the sand and stagnate? Or will we choose to grow, to be transformed?
2 Peter 1 says that we’ve been given a gift of faith and that it is all we need for a godly life. Yet, the passage doesn’t end here. It goes on to instruct that because of this truth, we are to make every effort to add to this faith many other things: goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, mutual affection and love.
But here is the clincher.
It is easy to fear the idea of “making every effort.” Is 2 Peter 1 merely a call to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” so that we can be transformed? Isn’t this legalism? Isn’t it ONLY God’s work to transform us? Or is it primarily our work? We need a good theology of intentionality. I find it in Luke chapter one.
In this first chapter of Luke’s gospel, we come across two characters: the angel Gabriel and Mary. After greeting her in a way that troubles Mary, Gabriel encourages her to set aside fear and proclaims that she will give birth to Jesus. Mary’s response is an understandable. “How will this be, for I am a virgin?” Because we humans tend to struggle with feelings of unworthiness, we look for all kinds of excuses to not receive good and beautiful gifts. But Gabriel, in all wisdom, tells Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High will overshadow her. In other words, there’s really nothing for her to do.
Or is there?
Mary’s next response is remarkable. “Yes Lord. I am your servant. May it be to me as you have said.” This story so beautifully illustrates a theology of intentionality; of choosing to be transformed. I agree with Francis Schaeffer in his book True Spirituality when he says that Mary could have rejected the gift and said no. Instead, Mary exemplifies what Schaeffer calls an active passivity. God tells Mary, via Gabriel, what he wants to do in her life.
“We are in the same situation in that we have these great and thrilling promises we have been considering, and we are neither to think of ourselves as totally passive, as though we had no part in this, as though God had stopped dealing with us now; nor are we to think we can do it ourselves.” Instead, there must be a “constant act of faith, of thinking, Upon the basis of your promises I am looking for you to fulfill them, O my Jesus Christ; bring forth your fruit through me into this poor world.”
I’ll never forget my 2008 “ah-hah” moment.
I can still hear my colleague’s voice as he proclaimed, “Students, take notice. Change is inevitable. Growth is optional.” I am grateful to Mary for showing me that it is possible to live with an active passivity. Mary didn’t just sit there after Gabriel visited her. She said yes and then she immediately went to Elizabeth for counsel.
To wake up each day to the gift God has for us, whether it be growing us in joy, in peace, in self-control or in perseverance, all we need to do is to first say yes and then choose ways to respond practically each day. In His grace we can get creative as we “make every effort” to practice joy when we feel hopeless, to practice peace when we feel panic, to practice self-control when we feel out of control. This practicing sometime feels fake or put on. But these practices come after we have said yes to God’s promise to infect the transformation in us.
“Yes Lord, may it be to me as you have said.”
What is the gift you are considering? Say yes. Choose transformation this day.
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