“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
I always hated change. Like most people, I am a creature of habit. Change is uncomfortable. Change is the unknown. Change is hard. But change is inevitable.
Tonight I will go to bed as one identity and awake in the morning absorbing a different one. Oh, I’ll still be a Christian – a son of God. That will never change. I will still be the son of the (late) Leroy and Viola Todd. Again, that cannot be changed. However, as a man I draw a lot of my identity from the position I hold in society – whether that be my marital status, my socio-economic status, my social status, or the job I hold. Tomorrow the job I hold will begin fading away and I start training on my new one. Like I wrote recently, this is not so much employment as it is deployment.
One thing will always remain steady: God will be (as He always has been) my Source. He is my goal, He is my Savior, He is my all-in-all. By Him and through Him I have my very being, my life, my actions, and all that I am. I will always be a little “I AM.” Recently I was reminscing with a high-school friend about one of our mutual friends. Whenever Tom would meet Mom, Dad, and I out somewhere – like the county fair or somewhere else public – he would address us based upon my dad’s nickname. My dad, for all the years I knew him, was known in the community as “Hap.” He was always whistling or humming a tune, always had time to tell a story, and was, for the most part, a happy guy. He had lived a hard life all his life, but by the time I came along he had settled in to a “normal” routine. Whenever Tom saw us, he would loudly declare something to the effect of, “Well, I’ll be $%!#@%, there’s Hap, Miss Hap, and Little Hap. As a youth that used to embarrass me something terrible because, you know, I was too cool for such a moniker. Yet the older I get I find my dad coming out in me more and more. I truly have developed into a “Little Hap.”
That is my desire as a Christian. I want people, when they see me somewhere besides the pulpit, to say, “Well if it isn’t Little Christ!” Paul tells us in this passage that we walk around with a veil over our face in public. But when we get alone with God and His Word, the veil is lifted and we are given a true reflection of our identity. We are to be in the process of becoming more and more like our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We should see that in ourselves as time goes by, but more importantly OTHERS should see that. It is that maturity, that growth, those changes in our lives that gives off the glory of God as, one-by-one our mortal-ness, our fleshly ways, are stripped away. The Holy Spirit’s job is to separate us from worldly ways and fleshly desires, causing us to reflect more perfectly the unaltered and undistorted image and likeness of Jesus as we walk through this life.
That is my desire for you and me both. That we may yield more and more to the Spirit and allow Him to change us into God’s image and allow us to more perfectly reflect the heart of the Father to those around us. Only then will we experience the true power of God in our lives and see those works come to pass He has foreordained for us to perform in His Name. Allow the Word of God to take root in your heart and life, allow the Holy Spirit to change your desires to be more in line with God’s will for you, and see what the Lord will do in your life.
Be blessed.
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