To change is to become something different from that which you were before. Whether we realize it or not we are always changing and we are changing into that with which we are the most intimately acquainted. It’s no secret that other people influence our lives. This is a widely understood fact of life. Sciences have been created to study how people affect one another. Sociology and psychology are studies of human interaction. Advertising, marketing, and economics have a firm foundation in understanding influences that we exert on one another and this isn’t a recent phenomenon.
We Are Changed Through Fellowship
Change would be the operative word to describe what relationships do for us. We are going to be changed as a result of relationships whether good or bad. Reflect on the relationship that you have with your wife or if you are not married then a close friend. Now think about how you have been changed as a result of the relationship. The change we go through in relationships is a result of fellowship. The Greek word Koinōnia is translated as fellowship and means: “Participation in anything, the using of a thing in common.” When I think of the word Koinōnia, I think of the word partnership. A partner shares, loves and works together. When you do this you are going to change because you will rub off on one another.
You Can’t Be Intimate And In Control
The reason we don’t like intimacy is because it makes us vulnerable and we feel like we are no longer in control. People who have sexual addictions have issues with intimacy. The issue is not the physical act although it is a fruit of the problem, but the root is a fear of intimacy. When we are truly intimate we become one with another and we lose some level of control.
If you want change then you have to be willing to become vulnerable. Vulnerability is risky and means you can also be hurt. All of us have been hurt at sometime, but we can’t let that keep us from intimate interaction with others. It does mean that we can limit that intimacy to those with whom we can trust.
Change Happens By Seizing The Moment
To most people it is amazing that Jesus was not intimate with everyone at the same level. You have the 5,000, 70, 12 and 3. We see Jesus took his three most intimate disciples with Him to what is now known as the Mount of transfiguration (Mark 9:1-8). In this experience Jesus was changed or transfigured and He spoke with Elijah a representative of the prophets and Moses a representative of the law.
Give me some liberty and let me put some practical application to this text concerning change. If we are going to change we can’t consistently live in the past (The Law) or we can’t consistently live in the dream world of the future (The Prophets). If we are always looking back we will simply be living a life of regret. We can’t sit around and continually ponder about what we could have done different to make our lives better. If our focus is on the past then we are going to continue to get the same results. We can learn from our mistakes, but we can’t continually live a life of regret or we will miss present opportunities. At the same time if you are continually living in the future of what can eventually be then you will many times avoid what you must do today to get you into the place where those dreams can be fulfilled. Yes we need vision, but if all we think about is where we are headed then we can miss what we are supposed to do today preparing us for the future.
The Father spoke in the midst of the law and the prophets telling us to no longer look to either, but to the intimacy of the ever-present Son of God. We are called into partnership and oneness with Christ, which is a present reality. In the movie, ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ Robin Williams the unconventional professor took his students out of their comfort zone and as an artist inspired them to seize their moment in time. Carpe Diem is Latin for ‘seize the day’ and we can either seize the day or lose the day.
We ‘seize the day’ by:
1. Living in the present with Christ.
2. Being willing to be vulnerable.
3. Develop intimacy with Christ and our inner circle.
We ‘lose the day’ by:
1. Living in the past or the future all the time.
2. Allowing fear to keep us from others.
3. Refusing to listen to the Son of God.
The author of Hebrews exhorts us that while it is still called today to listen, pay attention and respond to the voice of God so ‘seize your day’.
This post is by Darren T. Carter
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