[blox_column width=”1/1″][/blox_column][blox_heading title=”I am intrigued…” size=”h3″ style=”style5″ animation=”none”][/blox_heading][blox_text animation=”none”]
…by the etymology of the word “transformation.” This is the 4th Pillar of the “best of mentoring” we are exploring in this space. Merriam-Webster, a long-time favorite go-to dictionary, defines etymology as an explanation of where a word came from: the history of a word.
I learned that the word, transformation, was first used some time in the 15th century. So it’s been around for awhile. And what do my “good friends” Merriam and Webster tell me about transformation?
a: to change in composition
b: to change the outward form or appearance of
c: to change in character or condition
Each Spring, should one be so fortunate to witness this, caterpillars spin cocoons and eventually transform into butterflies or moths. The fall bugling of male elk brings about the Summer transformation of the next generation of female and male elk. In human reproduction, any time of year, one egg and one sperm collide and with good health and high hopes a baby (or two, or three) shows up around nine months later. These are all forms of sincerely miraculous transformation in nature.
David Kinnaman, is an author whose thoughts I value. His thoughts in his provocative book, Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity, carefully defines beliefs and attitudes in many of those who are ages 18—34 (…even some of the rest of us, if we dare to be honest with ourselves). He writes:
Transformation is a process,
a journey,
not a one time decision.
Thus, how do we as humans, no matter our age, culture, education, ethnicity, religious or non-religious perspectives experience transformation? Dare I suggest one day, one hour, one breath at a time? I fully believe we are created, given life, to experience continuing transformation…to change and keep changing.
Of course, most transformation is not like some rapid moment as in an explosion. You and I both know, that should we be in an explosion, sudden harm can certainly redirect our lives. Should something so sad and critical happen, we still have the choice to choose to be transformed from that moment on.
However, for the vast majority of us, to experience transformation is a slower process. We have the sacred choice to choose to be transformed. We were not designed for a static existence…a sameness…a “no-change-ness.”
As you and I journey
through each decade of our life,
how willing are we to be transformed,
changed, molded deeper into our own unique design?
As stated in the three previous blog posts, the best of mentoring is always intentional. The best of mentoring brings about, in time, deep change. The best of mentoring is about every dimension of one’s whole life. And…the best of mentoring, for those who are willing to explore and discover who they are, well, transformation, in small and large ways will be showing up on the horizon of each well mentored life.
In the Bible, that rascal of a saint, known as the Apostle Paul (who also happened to pen a majority of what we know as the Christian New Testament via his travels, ship wrecks, imprisonments, and wanderings among the known world back in that day…) was writing to friends in Rome. These were not casual friends. These were men and women in whom he invested time.
In that letter to his friends in Rome, where Christians were being selected to be lion fodder, he, as a wise early mentor, intentionally, nurturing deep change, shared this wisdom. I am quoting from one of my favorite versions of the Bible…The Message:
So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering.
Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.
Instead, fix your attention on God.
You’ll be changed from the inside out.
Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
There is a 7 word hope, promise in what Paul wrote. Amazing. You’ll be changed from the inside out. What a promise of transformation. For you. For me. For all those we know. Even for all those we don’t know. For all who will come after us.
If…we are willing to be intentional,
seeking after deep change,
for every fiber, dimension and facet of our whole lives,
transformation can/will happen
no matter the length, trials or joys of our days
This is the platform upon which the best of mentoring takes place. These are the pillars that provide a stability for growth of anyone willing to be on the grow in all of who they are. This is what the best of mentors take into sacred consideration as the transformational journey begins and continues.
In future blog posts we (the mentoring leaders within Leadership Design Group) will be unpacking what a well mentored life can be like…whether you area a mentoree or a mentor. We welcome you to continue the journey with us as we further explore the best of mentoring.
[/blox_text][blox_row]
[blox_column width=”1/1″][blox_callout title=”Free Resource” box_style=”blox_elem_callout_clean” animation=”appear”]
For more information on designing leaders through Intentional, Deep-Change, Whole-Life, Transformational Mentoring, download our free eBook.
[/blox_callout][/blox_column][/blox_row]