New Creations (Issue 1.16)

Originally Written for 1/11/09

Well, you might as well know that I’m a Mac guy – have been for several years.  To be honest, I can’t stand working on a Windows-based PC; there’s just something about the Mac environment that I absolutely love.  It’s very difficult every day when I go to work and have to sign-on to my Windows machine in my office.  I don’t even like Internet Explorer, I prefer to use Firefox to browse the web.

So it’s no surprise that last week when I got back to work I downloaded a “Mac” theme for my Firefox browser at work – to make it look like Firefox on my Mac at home.  That made me glad; but then something REALLY wonderful happened – I found a nice little utility I could download that would transform my entire desktop to look like I was working on a Mac – the colors, the format of the windows, the Mac Doc – even the big Apple that appears when you turn the computer on.  This was an amazing blessing – I could finally feel like I was working in a familiar environment.  Granted, it didn’t have everything the Mac OS does – it only made my computer look like a Mac – but it at least helped.

Then it happened…  When I turned off my computer and turned it back on all my settings were gone.  I realized I was going to have to re-configure the system every day to look the way I wanted it to – the software changes were unable to be saved.

I was devastated – I mean utterly devastated!  I was forced to go back to working in Windows.  I almost cried.  I had to remind myself that while I may be able to make a Windows machine look like the superior Mac I couldn’t transform it into a Mac.  It’s the difference between change from the inside-out and merely change on the outside.

Which is kinda like our relationship with God.  We can all say the “right words” to fit in with believers, or we can do the “right things” (or not do the “wrong things) to have the appearance of one who’s saved, but at the heart of the matter if we’ve not been transformed by the renewing power of the Spirit we’re no better than a Windows machine trying to look like a Mac.

Which gets me to my thought this week – how many times do I allow myself (or do we allow ourselves) to do, say, or think things that are no more than putting on an act to appear “Christian” yet we don’t let God have His way with us?  How often do we tell someone we’ll “pray for” them, but never do?  How often do we ask God forgiveness for the same sin and promise “I’ll never do it again”?  How often do we focus on our outward life instead of our heart?

Paul teaches us that we have been transformed, that we are new creations – we’re not just Windows PCs trying to look like a Mac, but we’re the real thing!  Which means it’s time to “think different”.