Life is a journey, and as any journey, there will be hills and valleys, good times and bad, and times we wish could be erased from our minds. It has been said that we are the sum of our experiences. All the good times, the bad times, the memories that bring smiles to our faces, and those that break our hearts to remember. Some people have so many of these painful experiences at so young an age that their outlook on life will be forever dark, unless something changes their perspective.
Fortunately, there is someone who can help us change our perspectives, and help us see with new eyes, and feel with a revived heart. As Christians, we are exhorted to do this very thing.
Romans 12:1-2
1I beseech you therefore, brothers and sisters, in light of all that God has done for you in His mercy, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (some translations say “act of worship”). 2And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
This seems difficult to grasp for most people because often times we translate “renewing of your mind” as “change the way you think”. This is true in part, but I means so much more. Simply telling ourselves that we shouldn’t cuss, shouldn’t get drunk, shouldn’t go to these websites, shouldn’t think badly or talk about these people isn’t enough. We must truly change the way we desire to think, the simple modification of behaviors doesn’t cut it. Now we must ask ourselves, how do we truly change our desires? Yes, the typical church answers do apply: go to church, read the Bible, pray. All of these are excellent places to start taking action, but who is really working to change our affections and desires? God is.
We often fight this though because it means change, and often times it means confronting those memories we wish we could erase. We avoid this whenever possible, because it causes more pain. We see God as the person breaking our legs, instead of the doctor setting the bone and pushing us through rehabilitation, which often hurts more than the initial injury. So we run.
We run from the feelings of guilt, shame, and pain. We run from those repressed memories which keep us awake at night. Instead of dealing with the issues, we promote a life of business, always being on-the-go, never slowing down to rest. We do not like rest, not because we dislike relaxation and time to recover, but because if we are still too long, who we really are becomes apparent to us. The problems we have, the pain, the hurt, all come flooding to the surface. So we start running again.
The problem with this is that when we are running from dealing with our issues, we become the bitter old man in the wheelchair who could be walking, only he pushed the doctors away when they were pushing him through rehab. We push God away when He is burning away the dross to make us more like Him, to change our affections and make us see through His eyes, and feel with His heart.
Everyone does this at some point, until God eventually makes you slow down enough to face it. Before we write this off as another plight common to man, we must ask ourselves this: if we are running from an almighty God who loves us so that we may avoid dealing with pain, guilt, shame, or other issues, what are we running to?
