Total Transformation
Consider the life of a caterpillar. This pudgy grub spends its days eating and eating and eating. Some caterpillars can eat up to 10,000 times their own weight. Many a tree has been stripped bare by an infestation of such caterpillars which live simply to take and take and eat and eat.
One day, though, this selfish little larva enters into a cocoon. Several months later, it reemerges, not as a creature that exists for itself. Rather, it becomes an integral part of the pollination process, bringing life to our planet.
The caterpillar hasn’t been reformed. It has been transformed.
Likewise, we humans are, by nature, pretty self-centered. Our lives typically revolve around our three favorite people in the whole world—me, myself, and I.
Life is about making money for me and my family. Life is about my work and climbing the ladder to advance my career. Life is about the things I can acquire to make me happier and bring me pleasure. That sounds a whole lot like a caterpillar to me.
When we accept Christ, however, there should be a transformation, a complete change from selfish people to selfless people.
So which one are you? The caterpillar or the butterfly? Are you taking or are you giving?
What drives your life? Self or Christ?
Are you not sure how to answer those questions? Here’s a way to tell. How do you react when things don’t go your way? If you get depressed, frustrated, or angry when things don’t go your way, odds are you’re self-driven.
Take a look at how Paul reacts: We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don't give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going…Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus, so that the life of Jesus will be obvious in our dying bodies…We have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have faithfully preached the truth. God's power has been working in us. (2 Corinthians 4:8,9,11; 2 Corinthians 6:5-7)
What do you think Paul is living for? What do you think drives Paul’s life?
Beaten within an inch of his life, jailed, exhausted, and hungry, how does he react? With patience, kindness, joy, love, and giving, that’s how he reacts.
It was certainly not money, fame, or possessions that were driving his life. It was Christ and Christ alone. Paul experienced the love of Christ, who came and suffered on the cross for you and for me, and his life was transformed.
If things drive your life, one day you’re going to crash. Because one day, those things you’re counting on will be gone. That job you have, that farm you own, that best friend, that house you’re fixing up, that new movie you just have to see on Friday night, that TV show you never miss, none of that lasts forever.
These things cannot drive your life. You need something bigger. You need something better. You need something constant and eternal at the wheel of your life.
