TRANSFORMATION

This week, our church has begun the transformation process of Vacation Bible School! The theme for the year is "Saddle Ridge Ranch," and the church building is now sporting hay bales, a chuck-wagon wall, a camp-grounds, and a "worship barn"... all in all, it's pretty entertaining to see!

The funny thing about transformation is that it's a messy process.

Today, the chuck-wagon backdrop is hung, but there is paint on the floor (our resident expert says it will come up with a good buffing)... progress is sometimes messy. The hay bale worship set is in place, but a few sprigs of hay dot the carpet, which is designed for easy cleaning and localized replacement, but can still draw the jaundiced eye... progress is messy. Today I saw the new "rocks" for the watering hole in the camp-ground... paper bags filled and painted like rocks... you guessed it, painting rocks is messy.

Yesterday, my assistant went through the building straightening up in the aftermath of transformation. It wasn't as lengthy of a job as it looked like, but it was big enough, and the results were amazing! Today before the ladies Bible Study, and my Wednesday morning counseling session, I became the backdrop hanging tech, got messy, sweaty, and in the end, transformation is taking shape... inconvenient, messy, and beautiful.

The same is often true in life, isn't it.

For all our efforts, God works His beautiful transformation art upon us in His own way, His own timing, and His own system of organization/mess ratio.

Isn't it interesting that the first step toward salvation is to admit the deity of Jesus... thus submitting to the fact that He is God and we are not. That one admission can tear us apart, can't it. All the constructs of modern humanism hang upon the joint intersection of personal pride and independent deity... and even in light of modern "enlightenment" God simply continues to invite us to join in His singular way, knowing that His path is the only one that will lead us to life.

The tide of God is relentless and unbreakable. Though I could MAYBE swim up a river, I simply invite myself to drowned if I swim against His tide.

Today, I look for His transformation. Instead of running from it, I want to run to it.

For me, it makes all the difference in the world!

In the peace of Christ,

Pastor John