Be Ye Transformed
I paced the floor of my upstairs apartment night after night, memorizing books of the Bible: Galatians, Ephesians, 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy. I must have sounded like a madman to the neighbors. I thought by committing Scriptures to memory my struggle with homosexuality would end. God would transform my very existence from an ugly encapsulated gay caterpillar to a beautiful heterosexual butterfly. In reality, I was pleading with God to help me live up to an unachievable ideal.
I grew up in church learning the mystical approach to becoming a better Christian: learn the Bible, pray and believe God. While that’s a great recipe for creating religious zealots, it doesn’t lead to genuine change. Here’s why.
Lasting change is a multi-step process. It involves self-awareness, motivation, and critical thinking. Change only begins to happen when we take an honest inventory of who we are. Even then, it’s one thing to recognize our issues, quite another to do something about them. How many of us have looked at the scale, realized we had a problem with our weight, and forgot all about it by the very next meal? Awareness doesn’t always lead us to change; sometimes it just leads us to beating ourselves up.
True change NEVER involves shame. Shame sends us into hiding and lying about who we are. Authenticity is the only vehicle capable of taking us down the road to transformation. I don’t become a better person by denying who I am; rather, I honor the journey by embracing my flaws and imperfections. When I stop fighting against nature, nature becomes a force that fights with me, not against me.
Likewise, forced motivation never works. Forced motivation comes from guilt, the feeling that we should be doing something we’re not. True motivation comes from within. It is a genuine desire to love because we want to, not because we have to.
There is no quick road to transformation. Memorizing volumes of books, religious or otherwise, may make you smart – or perhaps mad – but knowledge alone will not change you. Transformation is a natural progression of growth, as we choose to love, show compassion and apply wisdom and meaning to our journeys.
May your life be continually transformed.
Tim
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Book Review: A Life of Unlearning One Man's Journey to Find the Truth (Audiobook) by Anthony Venn-Brown A Message Worth Repeating Would You Jump Off A Cliff to Save Your Life? Sin, Shame and the Ex-gayCopyright © Tim Rymel [Be Ye Transformed], All Right Reserved. 2014.The post Be Ye Transformed appeared first on Tim Rymel.
