I like to look in shape. So I wear the clothes that are tight in just the right spots and aren’t tight in the spots that…well…would not be right. I talk about how much I can bench press and how many push-ups on an incline I can do. I like to show off how quick I am by demonstrating my agility in short little pickup games of basketball or football. I even eat a healthy meal in front of others and drink only diet soda.
But the problem is not that I WANT to look in shape. The problem is that I want to be in shape by constantly trying to LOOK in shape. My focus is on how I look and not what I’m dedicated to. To be in shape means that you’ll see the habits of your life in a fundamentally different way.
You won’t change the way you dress.
You’ll change the way you live.
And if you are someone like me, that means you have to change from the inside out.
It doesn’t help that I sometimes succeed in tricking people into thinking I’ve lost HUGE amounts of weight or have been working out a lot because it just makes me think that I’m reaching my goal of being in shape. The problem is that I just APPEAR to be GETTING in shape – but in reality not actually!
I know of a guy who had a similar problem.
He loved being Christian. Funny thing is that he always wasn’t like that. In fact, he was probably the most “Un-Christian” person you would know.
The truth is that everyone in his hometown knew about him. And it wasn’t that he was a criminal. It was because he was popular! It didn’t matter how rich, or how poor you were, if you were from this guy’s hometown, you knew about him and you wanted to hang with this guy! He was the coolest…but he was not a Christian.
Then something amazing happened in the guy’s life. All of a sudden there came a moment in time where he realized that life wasn’t all about him and eventually found out about the truth of Christ. And when he believed in Christ and became baptized, he was constantly amazed by all the wonderful things he began to experience and the miracles he witnessed. The thing that captured him the most was seeing these guys, who were totally sold out for God, ministering to people and seeing God’s Holy Spirit enter their lives. He decided right then and there that’s what he wanted to do. He wanted to be a minister just like them.
Doesn’t sound like he’s got a problem, right? Well, there is! Don’t believe me? Check out what Luke the apostle has to say about this guy
* (Acts 8:9-24)
Simon’s problem was that he enjoyed being Christian without actually embracing the change that defines what a Christian is. While his behaviors and beliefs were different, he wasn’t a new creation.
Being different does not mean you’re a new creation, but being a new creation will mean that things will be different.
Are you a new creation?