Sicilian Defense

The inverted life is anything but perfect. I am human and there are things that affect me, and there are things that I allow to affect me.

Recently, the preacher at my church has featured spiritual formation as a topic in his sermons. One series covered the different temptations he has either witnessed in others or experienced himself in ministry:

1.) The temptation to be relevant
2.) The temptation to be spectacular
3.) The temptation to be powerful

He related these to Matthew 4:1-11 when Jesus is being tempted.

Spiritual formation was also a topic at a church retreat that I was able to attend a couple weeks ago. I was surprised by the familiarity of that topic, not because I have studied the topic, but because I think it fits part of what got the inverted life started.

During the retreat, we studied how change comes from within. A person starts in solitude, making up his or her mind and heart. The inner change prompts similar people to gather, creating communities of people. The communities then affect the people around them, and the external change creates movements that affect all of society.

I remember the first trip to Louisiana, when I sat on the bus heading home, and saw the devastated landscape revert to normal. I remember coming away with something in my heart, an inarticulate prayer that slowly resolved to this:

"God, please do not let me go back to my life the way it used to be."

The change on the inside changed me on the outside, but it lasted only a few months before the stresses and strains of the world crept back in.

There are days when I cry out for that transformation to come back. I was at peace, I took less time to forgive, and I took way more time to be offended.

One day, I pray that God will give back what I had back then. It may not be exactly the same, but I want that transformation. I know it costs something, but that doesn't change the fact that I want it.

I leave you with this: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:1-2).