small change

I've had more than one blog over the years, and while perusing through old material, I came across this:

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so i'm in the shower today, and i'm thinking...what's changed in me lately?

now...i'm not talking about small changes. i'm not talking about...haircuts, or what kind of toothpaste i use or even...what my job is going to do.

i mean, that's all good and well and all, but what about...spiritually?

and its easy to say, and we hear it all the time that you grow and you adjust and you ease into being a good christian...but is that enough? i mean, Christ didn't call people to making small little changes and "ease into" being a christian.

we see him calling people out of their entire worlds. in luke 9:59 he asks this guy to follow him and this guy asks, just to go bury his own, father. and Jesus, he didn't miss a beat and said "let the dead bury their own dead". even in the very next verse, Jesus tells someone else to follow him and they ask to say goodbye to their family, and Jesus tells him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." and i don't know about you but...that seems radically different than what we hear today. i mean, if you told someone that what do you think they'd say?

but that's the point, isn't it? Jesus didn't call us to some...humdrum life where we can just change a little bit and be like him. he called us...to change. and not just change to this, this...culturized, sunday-wednesday church that comes in, sings some songs, and goes to lunch.

but you can't change radically all the time, but you can make radical changes in your life more than once, and more than twice. and if you haven't...if i haven't...then there's something wrong and we need to fix it.

and we need to do it now. we need to change ourselves so radically that we never even know who we used to be. we need to change ourselves to be so much like Christ that anyone, and everyone, that used to know us doesn't know what happened to us.

and i'm not saying that...that it's somehow bad or wrong or that you're lost if you don't change as fast as the next person or you don't know how to radically change your life or you just...don't understand what the big deal is yet. but just going day to day isn't enough. just being a "nice person" isn't enough. if we're not trying and striving and sweating and bleeding to change...is it enough?

and we're not perfect. we're going to fall and trip and stumble and crash, and burn sometimes...but only, if we're trying as hard and as long as we possibly can to be more...like...Jesus.

and if we're not...we need to fix that. we need to find someone, anyone, that can help us be who we know we need to be so that we don't...get left with this small change scenario when we are called and created to be so...much...more...

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I hope i can express this to my children one day. obviously my parents did something to help me realize that myself.

I don't worry really, about raising decent children who grow up to be decent adults.

Sometimes though, I worry about raising truly great children who grow up to be truly great men or women of God. It'll be tough to figure out, I'm sure, but I'm willing to put in the effort to help make it happen.

Guess it's time to get started on me. :-)