by Lucie Shores

Created on: September 04, 2009   Last Updated: February 23, 2010

This verse is not about being more or less spiritual. It is about strength that enables us to face the truth that is the basis for changing our minds. That means accepting new learning, integrating new awareness, facing new facts, being open to more truth. If we are able to renew our minds with the tools we are given, we are transformed from blind wanderers with little to offer, into truth-tellers who can support the renewal of others.

There is a story about native Americans who, when asked about the ships that brought the Spaniards to their shores, said they appeared before them from the sky. They had no context for understanding or recognzing what the big ships were,so when they looked out across the horizon, they did not take notice of the Spanish gallions, but only saw the men in small boats appear out of the blue, as if by magic. Because they could not fathom their appearance, they assumed they were gods.

We find it easier to look past what we don't want to see and to ignore the challenges of understanding a new thing, rather than facing the explanation of reality. Nothing is more difficult than accepting and seeing clearly what one has never believed to exist, or what we have even hated to admit.   This is the plight of people who do not want to hear the truth and will not recognize it when they do. 

There are many interpretations of what these words implied in Paul's time. In spite of new and old interpretations, the story leading up to this exhortation remains full of miraculous sounding events. It is full of a mysterious power, from the prophecies of old to John the Baptist, Elizabeth and Mary, to the life and death of Jesus, and the 'scandalous' mystery of the resurrection. 

But transformation isn't the same as transfiguration.  It is something we can experience.  In modern terminology the meaning of the phrase might be, "We are changed when we face a mystery that has been explained." That is to say, if we are willing to look through eyes that can see new things and face the truth of something we have not understood before, it will change us. Another way to think about it is "When we change our own minds, everything else seems different".

Sometimes the phrase, "Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind", (KJV) is shrouded with mystery, as if we are to sit in wonder until revelation happens. On the contrary, Paul's words instructed the Roman Christians to actively get with the plan by facing the truths of the day as revealed to everyone.

Those who do not face what is already revealed have a choice to make. We can ignore reality and refuse to believe it is there, or we can look clearly with a renewed understanding of what counts. If we can renew our mind in light of an explaination, that new understanding has the power to transform our lives. 

We can turn from trusting blindly in powers that keeps us in the dark, to believing in and acting out truth that has been illuminated.

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