Transformation

Okay, as some of you may know, I go to a youth group. A couple weeks ago, we were talking about transformation, what it means to be transformed, how we can get transformed and the effort that that takes. To start this off, I'm gonna give you a definition for the word. I just looked it up in the dictionary and it sucked. So, as we all know, I'm gonna have to make one up.
Transformation means to change form.
Easy enough? Good, cuz my definition is way better than the complicated one in the dictionary. Anyways, can anyone guess what Bible verse(s) go with it? Come on, we all know where this is going...at least, if you know me, then you know where this is going. The leads to one of my favorite Bible verses, but also one of my least favorites. Of course, we often don't like things that we are afraid of. The power in this verse frightens me, cuz it's just that amazing. Its one of those verses that everyone knows, but that they so rarely look closesly enough at it. So....any guesses? Okay, I'll just tell you already. Romans 12:2 "2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." Yes, I know, I've practically stalked this quote, and now it's stalking me right back. I mean, seriously, what are the chances of it being mentioned in youth group on the FIRST DAY? I mean, it's not sky-high, it's like....grass high. I mean, there's a chance, but I honestly didn't expect it. So, of course, we started thinking about what transformation means. I guess we can go with a fairly common metaphore, and say that it's like a caterpiller turning into a butterfly...wait a second, I'm sure I can come up with something more original...Okay, so it's like when your learning a song for band class. At first, it kinda sucks...actually, it really sucks, cuz unless you're some sort of super-sightreader, it's gonna sound worse than crap the first time 'round. So that's how we start. Now, we can do this one of two ways. We could start by working on little bits and pieces of the song and keep moving forward from there, or we could try to change it all at once. It's fairly obvious what we do. We have to work on it chunk by chunk til at least part of it doesn't sound like an ugly, dying squirrel that was put in a toaster to burn to it's doom. Actually, we try to get the song to the point where people might actually like listening to it. So that's like transformation. If we want to transform our lives like it says in the Bible, it says "renewing of your mind"...now comes the question: "WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?" It says we've gotta let God make the change by changing the way we think. Which implies that we change the way that we think of the world around us. But we can't do that all at once, we can't just wake up one day and have that be reality. We have to pick a certain aspect of our lives, work at that a while, then keep moving to the rest of our lives til it's not half bad. But we can't do this alone. We need help. We need God to help us cuz God is like this teacher/instructor/conductor or whatever you wanna think of Him as. Like, we could learn the song on our own, but then we need someone to line up the performance...we have to have a reason to learn the song, so God's the dude who makes that happen. I mean, someone's gotta line up a gig. He tells us when we should use our transformed life to help others. He places us in situations where we are needed. So, I guess that's what transformation means...I guess that's how we apply it...I guess that's why we need it. I mean, do you wanna keep playing that squirel-in-the-toaster song? Ummm...no. Cuz nobody wants to hear that and nobody wants to put up with that noise. That's why we need to transform...cuz otherwise, our lives suck. Maybe not suck bad, but they could be better. I mean, if all the squirel ever knows is the misery of the dreaded toaster, how should he know that a couple shelves over, there's a window where he can get outside and live his happy little squirel life in a tree? So, that's basically why we need to allow God to work in us and transform us. Cuz transformation isn't just a word, it's the way to life.