the "with" life

Our current series at Westside King’s Church is called  The Baby, The Bathwater, and the Spiritual Life.  Through three focused messages, we are attempting to bring some clarity on what is and what is not essential Christian spirituality, especially in those areas where our thinking begins to get clouded and confused.

This past Sunday we talked about the idea of conversion.   We noted the story of Paul in Acts 9, perhaps the most famous account of Christian conversion in history.   But apart from the meaning of what Paul experienced in that transformative “Damascus road” moment, we also reflected on the larger telling of Paul’s story and how his life reflects to us the on-going importance of transformation and change.  We came to see that while conversion is sometimes experienced as an event or moment in time, it is much more accurately an event that becomes a process.  The truth is that our life with God is all of the following at the same time: a moment of transition, a life of process, and a hope for the future.  Conversion is often the way we talk about how we start this life with God, but conversion also needs to be considered through the lens of the long journey which follows.  But we should not miss the point of Paul’s story: that every one of us needs a significant re-orientation to a “with Jesus” life.

The word conversion simply refers to the reality of transformation, of change.  We can use the term in ordinary everyday ways, such as converting money from one currency to another, or of converting a power supply from alternating current to direct current.  The point is that something is changed into another version of itself.  The Scriptures tell us that this is not only possible, it is necessary.  You must be “born again”, said Jesus (John 3).

Try this for a thought experiment: the word “conversion” is made of two parts.  First, and most obviously, “version” connotes the particular form something takes, especially as it contrasts with other possible forms.   For instance, we might talk of two different versions of the same book, which means it is both different and the same at the same time (this is especially true of certain classics that are often reprinted).  The thing to note is that we can have the same thing in a different form.  Then, when we add the prefix “con” (which simply means “with”), the word takes on an added meaning something like this: the particular form something takes is deeply related to whatever it is in relationship “with”.  When we think more deeply about the word “conversion” we begin to see how real change takes place because of the influence of a third force (or person).  In other words, something or someone converts (changes, transforms) because of the influence of something or someone else.  It is not hard to see that the real essence of spiritual conversion is the possibility of becoming the version of yourself that is only realized by being “with” another.  And the idea of Christian spiritual conversion is the idea of what we become when we enter into the “with Jesus” life.

So here might be a definition of sorts: your spiritual conversion to Christ is the version of you that comes into being as you live with and in Jesus -- by his grace, in his power, according to his teaching, embracing the deepest change he calls us to.  Becoming a follower of Jesus does not deny the you that is you, but it opens up the possibility of becoming another version of you.  And this is simply because you live your life in the company of the One who remakes people by his overflowing life.  You become another version of yourself, not because of your own self-effort, but because of the ways life becomes different when it is lived “with” Jesus.

As always, the best way to understand this idea is to see it lived out in real human lives.  And if there is anything that is capable of genuine investigation, it is the reality of spiritual conversion in countless human lives.  Ask someone to tell you their story.  Look around for biographies of change.  Take time to think through whether or not Christian spiritual conversion actually happens.

The simple truth is that none of us becomes ourself by ourself.  We are made in the company of others -- families, friends, communities, teachers, and so on.  We become by being “with”.  And the deepest need of every one of us is to be remade by Jesus, remade into a transformed version of ourselves, the version that is born by being “with him” (see Mark 3:14).

We hope to see you this Sunday at 9:29 or 11:11 am.  We conclude The Baby, the Bathwater and the Spiritual Life series with a message about guidance.  Stay tuned for a Deep Dive Digital Conversation to follow shortly.