Monday, September 13, 2010

Inspiration v. Transformation

Yesterday in Sunday School, we watched the second video in the Extraordinary study by John Bevere. One of the things he mentioned was whether we settled for inspiration which can come from many sources (books, poetry, music, etc.) or for the transformation God wants to work out in our lives.

Someone mentioned during the discussion that we tend to run from transformation because it's work. Lots of work.

I've been thinking about that. Actually wanted to add to that in the class, but ran out of time. So here's my thought.

We are willing to invest our time in the things we value and that matter to us. For example, I spent four year getting my undergrad degree. I valued it. Knew it would open doors for me that made the investment of time and money worth it.

Then I invested four years in law school. Again, even though there were parts of the process I hated, I invested the time, energy, and money to get a degree that I valued. I knew it would open doors and allow me to do things I couldn't do without it.

And now I've invested five years in getting some sort of unrecognized, advanced degree in writing. I value the opportunity God has given me to tell the stories He puts in my heart. I've invested oodles of time, money going to conferences to learn, money to buy books, money to hire babysitters, etc., because I value it.

So to say I don't want transformation because it's too hard is a flimsy excuse. If I truly want to become the woman God has called me to be then I need to be equally prepared to surrender my life and do the hard work of making the changes He requires.

Okay, I'm done preaching. For now :-)

4 comments:

Timothy Fish said...

It sounds to me like John Bevere needs to invest in a better dictionary. Or perhaps this is just a case of mixed metaphors. To be transformed is to change our very being. When the Bible talks about our need to be transformed rather than conformed to this world, it draws a line between us being the same as before but acting in a new way and our very being having changed. We are new creatures. We certainly want to be transformed, but where does that fit in relation to inspiration? While we often talk about being inspired by something we’ve seen or heard, that is just a metaphor of another concept. The word inspiration itself means a divine influence or action on a person. Literally, it means God breathed. Why must we choose between transformation and inspiration? I want God to make me into the person that I ought to be (transformation), but I also want him to guide me (inspiration). If I am transformed, I may not need quite as much guiding because I will naturally do what I should, but I never want to be so transformed that I don’t need God’s inspiration.

Julia M. Reffner said...

Great thoughts, Cara. I agree that transformation is something we often run from and can be scary for those of us that struggle with the unknown, but so true we need to be prepared for complete surrender...

Cara, I wanted to share that I was so blessed by an interview with you I listened to this morning on CFBA. I know its been up for a while, but you understand how it is when you have littles sometimes it can take a while to listen to something in the small snippets here and there. Your story was so encouraging to me because my kids are 2 and 5 and I'm a homeschool mom. God's birthed a dream in my own heart towards writing novels and although I started one...the time is not now. So this is one of my surrenderings I must yield to. God has blessed me by giving me opportunities to review books and to blog here and there and to meet some wonderful writer-friends in the process. I just really felt led to share that your obedience and journey truly blessed me today. He is so good to give us encouragement at the right time. God bless you, Cara!

Cara Putman said...

Thanks, Julia. I really appreciate you letting me know. Encouragement is always appreciated but especially crazy weeks like this. Blessings to you!

Cara Putman said...

Timothy, I think his point was that if we're getting our inspiration from anywhere other than God then we are missing what God has for us. So I think you actually agree with him :-)

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