Is it REALLY possible to CHANGE?

I am deep into preparations for my new (“advanced” / “alumni”) women’s retreat. (A church in Texas has already had me teach my “standard” retreat and they asked me to come back next month for another event. So I’m preparing a new set of teachings on Becoming Who You Already Are: How the Gospel Transforms Our Lives and Brings Us Peace.)

Does anyone else find it strange (hard? painful? frustrating?) that whenever we have to pray, study, and prepare to teach on a certain topic we invariably start to STRUGGLE regarding it? That has surely been my experience lately.

As you may have picked up from some of my recent posts, I’ve been quite discouraged by my own sin and depravity lately. I think to myself:

What a joke! What a fraud I am! How can I possibly teach on CHANGE when I see so LITTLE change in my own life?

How indeed.

Well–tonight (as I’m up at 2AM again), I read a line from the new CCEF book How People Change and was immediately convicted:

“This life of self-examination and joyful discontent should not be confused with a life of paralyzing self-condemnation.”

It shouldn’t?

Of course not!

But, UH-OH … I saw myself just a TAD too much in it.

So where is the gospel? Professors Lane and Tripp continue …

“God does not call us to self-loathing, but to a willingness to examine our lives in light of our hope as new creatures in Christ. That hope is not only based on the promise of forgiveness, but on the promise of personal deliverance and restoration as well. The same grace that has forgiven me is now in the process of radically changing me.”

Amen & Amen!

With my hope refocused again on CHRIST … I think I’ll try to get some sleep now. Again.

Love to all!

Your friend,
Tara B.