THE SECRET OF STAIN REMOVAL

Ready, aim, ugh! So many of us, if not all of us, have tried to change something about how we’re living our life. Adjusting our attitude, my theme in recent posts, is one of things many people try to change about themselves. They’re tired of having a negative or critical or hopeless, or bitter or an all-the-above attitude. But maybe you’ve noticed, if you’ve become trapped by a bad attitude, it’s extremely hard to change. I recently bought a nice pair of shorts for our upcoming Caribbean cruise. Wouldn’t you know it, the first time I wore these mostly white shorts I got a small spot of pizza sauce right on the front. My wife and mother-in-law have both tried different methods to get the stupid spot out of my shorts. It’s much better, but a faint red stain can still be seen.

In my most recent post (June 7~Changing Your Attitude) I wrote: “…deep, life-transforming change is the result of the Holy Spirit working in our life. See what Paul writes in Romans 8:6 “…the attitude that comes from the Spirit leads to life and peace.” (CEV)” Deep, life-transforming change is an inside/out process. This isn’t how the motivational, self-help experts usually approach change. They place the greatest emphasis on a person’s mind and mouth, what they think about and what they talk about. What they’re suggesting is more of an outside/in process, even though they include the mind. The mind portion of their teaching tilts towards telling yourself what to think about. I don’t want to completely dismiss this approach, because our mind and mouth are very important. But if you sincerely desire change, you have to go deeper than how you think and what you say.

I want to make what I believe is an important observation. The limitations of all the self-help teaching is demonstrated by the fact that all of these experts have to continually produce new books, blogs and videos. They have to keep holding more seminars and conferences. The reason for this, IMHO, is two-fold: One, there’s serious money to be made in producing these types of materials, so the machine has to keep creating new resources. Two, they have to create new tools because the present tools are only effective for a limited period. So, while all the self-help teaching can be helpful, there’s too much “self” involved in the process to be of help.

The inside/out process of deep, life-transforming change reaches beyond a person’s mind and mouth. You might be thinking, “What’s deeper than our mind?” There’s a spiritual dimension to all of us, which is the place from which all of our thoughts and words emerge. This is the place where our spirit dwells. The Apostle Paul connects the kingdom of God to “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:7 NIV) In my next blog post I want to go deeper into how we can experience the deeper working of the Spirit in our spirit, so the change within us is not temporary, but truly transformational. So, next time I’ll share the secret of stain removal.