It’s a new year and a new way of looking at yourself—out with the bad and in with the latest. We use the notion of a new year as another way of looking at your life. But what is the significance of focusing on a change in a date, and how does that affect our lives? Can a date alone change the direction of our lives, or does it require more?
I put this question to task because the need to change is ongoing, and we are an adaptation machine by nature. Changing our condition requires changing how we address our needs. Within you is the ability to change the question, which is your active role in the process. Change is ongoing, whether we yield to it or not. If change is continuing, then why is it not happening specifically? On a personal note, why have I not risen to the occasion?
I write about transformation and renewal of the mind, yet I impose limitations upon myself, focus more on the things I don’t like, and do not embrace the things I do like. My energies are being consumed and directed more at problems than solutions. Just as alarming is that I look at others, impeding my progress and giving them authority over my affairs, the things I find offensive in others.
Now is the time to experience the transformation process and align with the part of me yearning to express itself. I acknowledge that I can advance, but not in the existing mindset. My attachment to my feelings and emotions hinders my growth. As practical as I am, it is easy to stifle and give credence to my feelings. There is a battle within me regarding affairs of the heart.
Having my personal space and debriefing is always an asset to me. I have creative ways of dealing with others, and a pattern of engagement with my family has not been comforting for us and still lingers. We battled for an extended period, and it became a way of life for us. Resentment and anger management issues remain in our home and in how we interact. We can quickly revert to a confrontational, hostile stance, only to be apologetic afterward. Biblical lore states that putting a bridle on your tongue is the most unruly part of the body. Our words have a lot of power, for the issues of the heart come out of the tongue.
Becoming a new creature in Christ requires that you die to yourself daily and renew your mind as a way of life. Often, we marvel at the Christ within Jesus and ignore the Christ’s potential within us. I want to borrow a statement from the title page of our family Bible that I am fortunate to possess: “The Holy Bible is the human side of the Hebrew people
We are spiritual beings experiencing the human condition even more; the bible expressly states that we are not conforming to the world’s ways. Our spiritual journey entails likening to a prodigal son. We come back to an awareness of our true selves. The allure and the enticements of like take us away from who we are by nature—man designed a way of life for his distinct pleasure, contrary to the ways of the Creator. We live in an altered state of existence that promotes characteristics contrary to the will of the Creator.
God instructed man to be set apart and to be in the world but not of its design, not to conform to the thoughts and principles that govern the system that we live in. Our lives have a higher calling to transform and renew the mind.