Renew: To Transform, Be Transformed by God’s MercyÀpẹrẹ

"To transform, we must be transformed."

The church my team helped start was in an old neighborhood just north of downtown Fort Wayne, a part of the city in transition. For fifty years, families had been moving out to the suburbs, home prices dropped, and the slow creep of brokenness marred all it touched.

As an aspiring pastor trying to make a difference, it was an easy temptation to think of myself as a better person because of how my life seemed compared to some who lived near the church.

Until I began to become more honest with myself, which was a form of grace, to see how many similarities we had in our thinking and faith.

I befriended in my church men and women for whom twelve-step programs were part of their transformation. Part of their recovery was tied to how they thought about themselves, God, and those they had hurt.

The first four steps are a courageous way to begin the transformation of our mind, of embracing God’s grace for us, and living sacrificially: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”

We know that God brings this kind of step-by-step transformation to fruition through people who are open to His Spirit. With God’s view of mercy, we can begin to see ourselves as we really are, a sobering judgment grounded in truth, in faith, in hope, and in love.

When we commit to friendship with like-minded women and men who also desire to participate in this reality, using sober judgment in their decisions, thinking of themselves from God’s point of view - with mercy – then we begin to experience the transformation we desire.

Mercy is a gift of grace, which requires us to want it, and trust that God will birth it in us, in his timing, his ways transforming us with friends in a caring community.

And when we find ourselves trusting God, tenderly accepting mercy, finding we have faith, even if it’s as small as a mustard seed, that too is a sign of Christ's healing grace to each of us.