The ego is always threatened by whatever is new or different. We will always be resistant to join Abraham and Sarah in “leaving our country and our family for a new land that God will show us” (Genesis 12:1-2). Yet that is the foundational paradigm for the journey of faith.
The urgently needed work of mature spirituality is a change of heart and a change of mind. Many of us, over the years, have read and listened to the challenges of the Gospel yet have actually done very little in terms of lifestyle changes, and economic or political rearrangements.
Most people just listen to ideas and judge them to be true or false. But seldom leads to radical changes. Transformative education is more than believing or disbelieving in doctrines or dogmas. It is challenging us to try them out then we will know something to be true or false for ourselves.
Faith is moving as the Spirit leads, so we need to try something new, change sides, move outside our comfort zone, make some new contacts, and let go of our usual roles and attractive self-image. Then we can live our self into new ways of thinking. Without new experiences, new thinking is difficult and rare. After a new experience, new thinking and behavior come naturally and even become necessary.
Revelation 21:5 “Behold, I make all things new.”
Matthew 9:17 “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
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