Dear Faith Family, 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect, (Romans 12:2). 

It’s about that time of the year.  At least in South Carolina.  That time of the year when every vehicle gets a yellow paint job.  That time of the year when rain tends to fly north for the summer.  That time of the year when the war of the weeds blossoms.  That time of the year when Chapstick becomes Chapblob. 

Have you ever reached for your beloved Chapstick hiding somewhere in the recesses of the cubbyhole of your automobile’s console?  It’s been playing hard to get all year long waiting for this moment in time!  The South Carolina southern heat works its magic and then your fingers finally recover that long lost what used to be a stick.  It takes a minute for your mind to calculate its findings.  Then there’s that sinking feeling when you realize that your fingers are gooey with that used to be a stick. 

A spring-cleaning of the glovebox cubbyhole reveals the blob.  Fascinating, the once Chapstick has now assumed the shape of your glovebox.  Strange how a little heat can reconfigure a stick into an environmentally shaped blob. 

Paul demands that we stop taking on the shape of our environment, this world.  A little heat (and I’m not sure we even need the heat) and we can quickly look like the world out of which we’ve been called.  But how?  How do we stop being conformed when the pressures of this world are constantly, well pressuring? 

Transformation begins with our minds.  The ability to not be conformed to our environment is a process of clear thinking, a constant recalibration of our thought lives.  When this world attempts to convince us that the here and now is it, that it doesn’t get any better than this; our hope of not conforming to such sophomoric lies is a process of recalibrating our minds.  The Word of God (the Bible) is truth.  It is that to which our minds must be recalibrated.  Are you daily feasting on God’s Word? 

One more thought?  Consider the privilege of sabbath, a day of rest, a day of recalibration, a day to arrest the decay of conforming to this world, a day to be transforming.  What if Sundays were actually for our own good?  (Check out Mark 2:27)  An opportunity to be renewing our minds and thus be transforming.  What about your Sunday practices?  Are your Sundays opportunities to conform or transform? 

Don’t be a chapblob, 

Pastor Karl