Day 361: More Clearly
Becoming Reveals What Was Already There
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. — Ephesians 4:20-24 (NIV)
Reflection
I started writing this devotional almost a year ago, which means, if you’ve been with me since the beginning, you’ve been on this journey for nearly a year. I wonder if, when you started, you thought that growth was going to feel different than it has. Did you imagine dramatic breakthroughs? Sudden clarity? Light bulbs going off?
I hope you haven’t been disappointed to discover that what’s actually happened has looked a little different. There’s probably been some repetition. Some setbacks. Disciplines that didn’t take or didn’t feel productive. Looking at yourself in a way that was honest, but uncomfortable at times. Responsibility that you would have preferred not to take on. Pressure that returned even when you thought you had fought it back. Accountability you had to work to keep choosing. It is likely that growth has turned out to be more ordinary and more demanding than the cover of the book may have suggested. If I have played a cruel joke on you in this respect, I apologize!
But I suspect that you have learned something along the way: this is the version of growth that actually changes people for good. The dramatic version rarely does.
Paul writes something really interesting in the verses that come just before today’s passage. The English says “the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ” (NIV). But the Greek, taken literally, says “thus you learned Christ.” You didn’t just learn about Him, like you would study a dead and dusty book. You learned Him, the way you come to know a living person, by being with them over time until their way of being shapes yours. That is the language of transformation. And that is what you have really been working on over the last year.
Paul gives us the shape for this work: put off the old self. Be made new in the attitude of the mind (note that behavior cannot change unless the mindset does). Put on the new self. The metaphor is from clothing. You take something off and you put on something else. I like this image because it reminds me that the work is physical. It happens in real life, not in some abstract metaphysical space.
Look at how Paul describes the new self. “Created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Created. This new self is something created in you, by the One who made you in the first place, after His own likeness. You did not come to it by your own invention. You did not manufacture it through force of will. You have not been building a new identity but learning to put on what was already waiting for you.
The transformation you may have hoped for at the start of this year may have, in fact, been the wrong kind of transformation. You were never supposed to become someone else. You were supposed to become more clearly the person you were actually designed to be. That’s what putting off the old and putting on the new actually does. It clears away the distortions and false narratives that have been hiding what was always supposed to be visible.
If you have pursued this work with honesty, something has changed in you. You probably notice faster now when you are out of alignment. You likely recognize destructive patterns sooner. You think differently about responsibility, about discipline, about the people who surround you. That is real change. Who you are hasn’t changed. What has changed is how clearly the image you have been carrying since you were created is now expressed in every aspect of your life.
I suppose it is only fair to warn you, the putting off and the putting on do not end at day 365. It will continue as long as you continue. The finish of the year does not finish the becoming. It only makes the becoming more conscious, more chosen. The work that began on Day 1 is the same work that will continue into the next year, and the year after that.
But for today, take a moment to recognize what has happened. The image was there a year ago. But if you look really hard, can you not see it more clearly now than you could then?
Prompt
What part of yourself do you understand differently now than you did at the beginning of this year?
Practice: Return to the Beginning
Go back and reread the first entry of this book. As you do, pay attention to how your understanding of growth has changed. Write down one thing you thought becoming would mean at the start of the year, and one thing you believe it means now. Pay attention to the difference. The practice is in the honest looking, not in any conclusion you might draw from it.
Reminder
The image has been there all along. The work this year has been learning to live in clearer alignment with what you were already designed to be.
P.S. If this year has changed the way you think about growth, share this with someone who may still believe transformation means becoming someone else rather than becoming more clearly the person they were already created to be.