Transformation

I was following a car today and noticed that it had a dealer plate. This usually does not interest me however this car was very dirty and grimy and full of junk. The driver was chain smoking one after the other. It was hardly a car that was being sold on a lot. The plate was obviously (from my point of view) being used in order to keep the owner from paying necessary registration fees for the vehicle. This person was being deceptive.

I am not a police officer but have had enough conversation with a few of them to know that the job is amazingly difficult. Not so much when people are obviously violating a law but more so when people are trying to cover it up - to deceive. I would think that it takes a special wisdom in order to see through the lies of people. I would not be very good at it.

I have been fooled by deception. My past post's have been about the slow cooker of life. As I reflect on my past I see modes of operation that have not been the best and I do not know why I do some of them. I think that some of the patterns are laid before we really have any understanding of life - in observation of people closet to us in our very earliest formative years. As we move into adolescence and adult life - the patterns are somewhat set in stone and for the most part we accept them for "who we are".

This stewing season of my life has been beneficial in many ways. But one of the best is that God has been peeling layers of the onion off of my life to get to the core of who Mike really is - to uncover the old patterns that need to be changed. The crock pot's heat and time are God's means of doing this. The heat has softened me and somehow made me able to confront my deepest hurts and "closets" way back in my past. God is showing me the places where the devil has placed deception - ways of operating that I have accepted as "normal" however do not line up with scripture. I (and I am sure you are too) am a person that deeply desires to be and accomplish all that God has for me in this pre-eternal stage of living. However, I am naive to a lot of the deception of my enemy unless a faithful God helps expose it.

This is all a part of the Transformation process that Paul talks about in Romans 12:2. "Do not conform any longer to the patterns of the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Looking back - I am grateful for God's trustworthy hand - for His concern and process. I would not trade a moment of my life for the world. I would dare bet that those of you that have discovered true treasure in going through God's "crock Pot" would say the same thing.

James 1:4 says, "Perseverance must finish it's work so that we may be mature and complete not lacking anything." I encourage you and myself to let God be God with our lives and allow Him to complete His process.