And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. 2 Corinthians 3:18
I’ve received a couple of emails recently indicating that I need to change something in my medical practice. It hasn’t involved patient care, but rather, documentation and billing. It wasn’t a big deal, but still, my first impulse was to bristle at the suggestion that I may not be doing everything exactly right. It sounds ridiculous now, but as I read those emails, my pride flared up and was offended. I’m the doctor. I know everything. I don’t need to change a thing.
This may be one of the worst flaws with which I struggle. In my pride, I’m blind to my need for change and so, I’m paralyzed, unable to grow because I can’t see my failures. At least in my addiction, I knew I desperately needed something different. The danger in recovery, is now that I’m sober, I think I’ve arrived and no longer need to work on anything.
In today’s passage, Paul described the Christian life as one of continual transformation. We don’t come to faith, find a new life, and then just stop growing because we’ve already met Christ. We’re supposed to come to him and then begin a lifetime of change. As long as we live on this Earth, we’re not going to be made perfect, so we must continually develop more and more into what God wants us to be. It’s precisely when we think we don’t need to grow anymore that our spiritual lives become stagnant and we become useless to God.
This may be one of the most paralyzing flaws afflicting Christians today. Because we’ve been saved, some will see our spiritual journey as complete. We may look down on those who’ve not met Christ even as we remain blind to our own need for him. The truth is, we need God today just as much as before we met him. We all have things with which we struggle and none of us have arrived at perfection in this life. We all need growth, and we all need transformation. Yet our pride insists that we’re just fine the way we are. I don’t need to change a thing.
We can know this in our heads, while denying it in practicality. We may say, I know I’m not perfect. When, however, we get that work email insisting we do something differently, or our spouse suggests maybe we need to change, we often relapse back into our pride. I don’t need to change. And that, is perhaps our greatest flaw.