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Made For Transformation
by James Barringer I read a scientific study recently, which I've linked at the end of this essay, in which a few people who didn't regularly use the internet were asked to use it for one hour a day. At the end of a single week - five hours of internet usage - their brains had been totally rewired to think in a different way. It's no secret that the human body is made to be transformed: go on a diet and your stomach shrinks; exercise and your muscles grow. We all know this. What really amazed me about the internet study is that it happened so quickly. It threw me off because I'm so used to thinking of change as gradual. I have no problem skipping a day of exercise because, out of the time I've been working out, missing one day is not really a huge deal. But the internet study showed that your brain, if not the rest of your body, can be changed overnight. The way your brain thinks and processes information can be turned on its head in less than a week. Five paltry hours is all it takes. We talk a lot about the Bible "transforming" people, and we pay lip service to the idea that transformation, "being conformed to the image of Christ," is even the goal of our faith. So let me ask you the question: if five hours of using the internet can rewire a person's brain, what might five hours of reading the Bible, and five hours of prayer, do in your life? Have you read the Bible for five hours in the past week? The past month? If we were made to be transformed, then it's simply mandatory that we spend time doing the things which are going to transform us into the people we want to become. Think back on your life and consider all the ways you've already been transformed - for good or for bad. Have you gotten larger or smaller? More fit or less fit? Did you have opinions or ideas that you later changed your mind on? You know, then, that we were made for transformation. Everything about us, even now, is in the process of changing. It happens to us all the time, whether we want it or not. More to the point, it's God's destiny for us, that we ultimately be conformed to the image of his son. The challenge I would place in front of you is to give God the same amount of time that the study participants gave the internet: five hours, of the Bible and/or prayer, in one week. If the internet is capable of changing the way we think in five hours, surely our God must be capable of the same thing, and if you're serious about being changed by him, you need to at least expose yourself to him, and give him the chance to speak to you through his word and his presence. The real kink in the chain is that, because you were made for transformation, you will in fact be a different person at the end of this week, whether or not you do the challenge. You will either be a little more like God or a little less like him. You'll be just a little more patient or a little more impatient, depending how you allow yourself to react - and a little more or less trusting, a little more or less kind and gentle. You can't stop changing; the only question is who you're becoming. That's why it's so crucially important to spend time in the presence of the One who you want to become like. --- The study I spoke of is referenced in the first three paragraphs of this article: wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/ Jim Barringer is a 38-year-old writer, musician, and teacher. More of his work can be found at facebook.com/jmbarringer. This work may be reprinted for any purpose so long as this bio and statement of copyright is included. Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com |