I have recently been wrestling with what is meant by “the transforming of [my] mind”. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of this phrase is the transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly. However, this is rather disconcerting considering that the caterpillar looks nothing like a butterfly, and therefore the butterfly looks nothing like the caterpillar that it once was, or any of it’s caterpillar buddies. What does this mean in terms of us and our walk with Christ?

The best example I know regarding a transforming of mind is unfortunately in a movie series that I would not necessarily endorse. The movie is “The Matrix”. In this movie the main character ends up making a choice to leave the fake world that he had lived in, and was all he knew to join the real world. Through hooking up to a computer he was able to reconnect to this fake world, and began to learn that he could do things he never before thought to be possible. Throughout the series he learned to dodge bullets, fly, jump great expanses, and even revived his girlfriend. The main change that occurs is that he begins to see things differently. he begins to see the computer code behind the fake reality.

Now I have no desire to become a code seeing butterfly, but I do think we as Christians have lost the understanding of what it means to transform our minds. I can’t help reading the Bible and noticing the numerous people that literally talked to God, and He talked back, or people walking on water, raising the dead, healing the sick, etc. Do we believe we can do these thing? Are we really children of God? It seems to me that we block out much of the potential of what it means to be a child of God, either from fear, or by being skeptical, or some other reason. Not only do we block out doing great things, I believe we prevent ourselves from being part of great things because we don’t believe.

I also have seen that regarding the attitudes of the world, Christians (myself included), tend to feed on worldly attitudes, ideas, and values, instead of feeding on the word of God. It seems as though we tend to integrate our faith into the belief we have gotten from the world, leaving the world as our worldview structure, and Christianity as the decor. We have all but ceased looking for God daily in our lives. It takes a “miracle” for us to take notice anymore. If we are the Shepard’s sheep, should we not recognize Him? Shouldn’t we be able to trust that, “whatever [our] lot in life, it is well with our souls”.

So often I notice Christians griping and complaining, losing hope, losing their tempers, or just falling in with the crowd. I am guilty of this as well. So the questions rings in my head, “Shouldn’t we being doing better, believing more, seeking more, knowing more of God?” For me the road I’m on seems far to similar to the one non-believers are walking, my thoughts, hopes, dreams, ideas, ideals, language, and values seem to parallel theirs far too closely for me to feel comfortable stating that my mind has been genuinely transformed. I leave it to you and God to have that discussion, but I do urge you to think hard and long before dismissing it.

Until next time, may God bless you with new illuminations of Him and all of His glory.

In Christ

Perry Tripp