My life has consistently been one of
transformation ever since I have known the Lord. You see, I used to follow the world a lot. I used to believe the lies that it told me. The lies that said that I was hopeless, not good enough and unworthy. It also told lies that money was happiness,
success was happiness and that we all deserved so many things. It said that I deserved to have things my way and that I deserved to be happy. It said that it was okay to be selfish because
we are all entitled to whatever we want and we are allowed to act however we feel. The problem is that what the world says is not
truthful and it does not lead to transformation but instead it leads to death and I was buying into it.
This verse in Romans tells us that instead of listening and following the
world to have our minds renewed and changed by the truth of God’s word. The
world claims to make life easier and more pleasurable, but this is a lie. The more we listen to the world the less
likely we are to hear truth when He speaks.
When we listen to the Lord it is so much easier to understand His will
and continue to follow it and Him. Even when His ways are more difficult, they are so much better. I know this firsthand.
So what does all of this have to do with a butterfly? Glad you asked. Well, for starters, a butterfly has the most magnificent transformation ever! They start off as
nasty, ugly little caterpillars and end up as beautiful butterflies.
They do this through the process of
transformation. It’s not a simple
process but instead a lengthy and a hard one that challenges their very lives.
When a caterpillar is born it spends the first 2-3 weeks of its life
eating non stop. It literally increases
its body mass by a few thousand. It grows so much that it has to shed its shell
several times just to keep up with its own growth. Then, when
it’s ready for its largest growth spurt it attaches itself to a branch and
forms a cocoon and hangs there.
While
firmly attached to the branch it does its greatest growing and transforming. Cue amazingness...It literally starts being chemically disassembled
and reconstructed into something entirely new.
Within a few weeks it will fight its way through the tough cocoon and
emerge as a beautiful butterfly. As soon
as it takes flight it will find a mate, lay eggs and the process will start all
over again. It’s amazing!
Our journey of transformation should not be too different. We, like caterpillars, start off in all of
our nastiness and ugliness as sinners. When
we begin our journey with Christ is when the transformation process
begins. We eat His Word nonstop. We hunger for it and fill up on it and allow
it to grow us. As we grow we shed some of our old shells, the
shells of pride, selfishness, our old ways and old beliefs. The exiting growth we have achieved
until this point has prepared us to fight through the next stage of growth. In order for this new growth to take place, we
much attach ourselves to a branch, or better yet to The Vine. We firmly attach ourselves there while the
real work takes place. We hold on for dear life while winds blow, storms come
and the fight for transformation occurs.
While we are so rooted in The Vine we conform and change into something that is remarkably unrecognizable. It is after this process that we finally emerge
as something beautiful and magnificent.
One of the most special parts of this is how much a
butterfly must fight to get out of the cocoon.
It is hard work. Many foolish people have cut the cocoons open to help
out the struggling butterfly and relieve them from their pain, only to learn that by doing so they have sadly killed the beautiful
creature. The truth is that it’s the fight that takes
place in the cocoon that helps them live.
That is where their wings get their strength to take flight. Without the
process of the fight they emerge with damaged wings that won’t fly and are left
to simply die. The same is true for us,
if we quit the fight and cave to the world we too will spiritually die and
never be able to fly. The hard work is purposeful.
Personally, this is what I've always had to remind myself. My struggles have never been without purpose
and they have never been without a Master’s plan. The fights in my life have never been accidental. In fact, it has been those very struggles that have
allowed me to soar! So yes, I may have started out as a nasty caterpillar that
followed the ways of the world seeking pleasure and joy in all the wrong places only to find misery and defeat, BUT I have since ended up as a beautiful butterfly that has fought my way through
much transformation simply by holding onto the Vine and never letting go.
In my whole heart I believe this is what Jesus wants from us
and for us. He wants us to quit listening
to the world that offers to cut us out of our struggles. The problems of this world and the battles for your soul cannot be relieved or won by denial, beauty, mind altering substances, money or fame. Sure, those methods may relieve temporary pain but they also offer a false sense of pleasure that will ultimately destroy us. It is exhausting to keep going back for more all the time. Instead He wants us to follow His ways that tell us to fight against the lies of the world and to do so by simply holding on tightly to Him, the Vine. He does the transforming work. Then before you know it we emerge as something magnificent….the likeness
of Himself.
As a caterpillar I wanted to be rescued without the work of the battle. I was hopeless, afraid of everything, anxious, defeated and miserable. I didn't want to bear the transformation process, I just wanted to be the butterfly. Now that I am a butterfly transformed by God I am so grateful for His transformation process. It is because of it that I am now so filled with hope that I cannot resist from overflowing it into the lives of others. I am still afraid but not overcome by fear, I am no longer anxious over all of the tomorrows, I am never ever defeated and although I may temporarily suffer, I will never again be in permanent misery.
The thing that changed my life the most was accepting the offer to grab a hold of the Vine. It's an offer that has been given to us all when Jesus paid our debt on the cross. I took it and have been clinging to Him ever since and I hope that you have or will as well. The battle in my personal cocoon was so difficult and took so long but it was also SO worth it and I know yours will be too! So, who's ready to fly?!
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