Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:1-2
‘everyone wants transformation, but no one wants to change.’
Brene Brown
I was listening to a podcast recently by Brene Brown and noticed the quote, ‘everyone wants transformation, but no one wants to change.’ I wondered if that was true. Then I remembered something I learnt recently about spiritual growth and resistance. Marjory Bankson, author of The Call to the Soul, created a diagram named The Cycle of Call, consisting of six stages she’s observed we might go through when we notice Gods call on our lives. Interestingly, the first stage is to resist the call to new life! Halfway round the cycle is the ‘cross over’ point she calls the ‘poison river’ (taken from a childhood game). This is the point where in our human freedom we have the power to refuse our call, or we can choose to trust and move through the next three stages to release our self into the new until a new cycle of call starts all over again. I find this very helpful when considering God’s call to me, as Gods beloved child, to live in love as Christ loved me.
This morning God seemed to be speaking to me of Holy Spirit as the fragrance of Christ, revealed as the scent of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Having not had a sense of smell for two weeks because of a cold, I felt prompted to smell my wisteria blossom. To my delight I got the faintest hint of its delicate scent which led me to begin considering this call to be a fragrant offering, which led me to consider this as a call to inner transformation. It seems God has invited me recently to take notice of how my thoughts and feelings affect my behaviour as a doorway to change. A doorway from living out of my self-image to living out of God’s image in me. Moving from living out of old patterns, compulsions, and programmes that I’ve been chained to or have chained myself to, into the life-long process of renewal and freedom. From being a ‘child’ of the forces that have shaped me, into a ‘child’ of the Spirit. Cultivating awareness helps in this process (N.N.O.R.) Noticing how I feel or think, Naming it, Owning it, and Responding prayerfully. Is my response life-giving or life-taking?
As I seek to welcome Holy Spirit and prayerfully build my life on the fragrant love of Christ, I pray, that as I journey towards being whole through learning to love myself, like God does, by embracing my imperfections, which includes moments of stagnation, regression, and resistance, that by God’s grace, the scent of Holy Spirit in my life will be blossoming too as an integral part of that whole.
I wonder where you might be sensing God’s call in your life at this time? What might the invitation or challenge be? What are you noticing about how you think or feel about it? Have you started a conversation with God about it?
Naomi Greene