We all know this verse.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. -Romans 12:2 NKJV
I became a Christian around 7th or 8th grade, and this verse was a lovely message to memorize back then, because no matter how unique and non sequiter we tell ourselves we are, usually the only thing we want when we are young is to fit in. But one can only fit in by conforming, and unless, as this verses suggests, we are conforming to God’s way of doing things, we will find our Christian selves blending in with the world around us and missing the point of being “in the world but not of the world.”
Ironically, as with all verses we know well enough to recite to ourselves, the meaning can get a bit clogged up behind familiarity. I hadn’t thought about this verse or it’s meaning in years, until it happened to be in my quick!!-read-your-Bible-before-the-kids-get-up quiet time this morning.
When I was young, this verse taught me to be wary of the natural tendency to relax into the culture around me, and it served me very well. But a couple decades later, despite familiarity and because of all the varied roads I’ve walked up to this point, this verse is speaking different things to me.
That’s what I love about the Bible: it really is alive. It looks like a book on the outside, but if you let it lay open long enough, it will inundate your thirsty lungs with the ancient air of God’s wisdom whether you like it or not, like an explosive dose of CPR you didn’t know you needed. It’s pulsating aliveness makes it feel like the unofficial fourth member of the Trinity, if I may be so mystical. Also don’t tell my reform theology pastor I said that… it’s risky to be too mystical with reform people around. Gotta love ‘em though. Seriously, sometimes I have no idea why I haven’t gotten kicked out of my church yet lol.
Anyway. As I sit here in my late 30s after working a “job” I am embarrassed to say I’ve despised more often than not (aka motherhood) despite it being all up and down the Bible that God has put me here and I need to just surrender to it, I can see a meaning to Romans 12:2 that I never could have seen as a young spring chicken of a Christian. And the meaning has to do with the tension of this exact moment in my life (and maybe yours, too): where I am weary into the depths of my being of my vocation as a SAHM and yet still holding onto the belief that having kids and staying home with them was the absolute right thing to do. You can fill in the blanks there for your own life. You’ll know which ones to fill in by the central sorrow that inhabits large parcels of thought and prayer in your heart. “I’m hanging by a thread in XYZ… Yet I still believe God will somehow do His will in XYZ.”
Right now for me, Romans 12:2 has less to do with not conforming to the world and more to do with actively trying to see said world and life and everything else through God’s eyes, the way He sees it. Yes, we are not supposed to conform. But that’s only half the story. Paul says to be transformed by the renewing or “changing” of our minds. So that’s the part where we if we choose to align our thoughts with God’s and choose His way of looking at things over ours, we will be literally changed. Not conformed to a set thing like a piece of clay into the pre-determined (and in this case harmful and uncreative) mold the world hands out, but completely changed into something totally different- the piece of art He always meant us to be.1
Ok. That’s all well and good. But Paul’s line of logic keeps going:
…that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God
The point of the transformation that happens to us when we “renew/change our minds” is so that the overarching goodness of the will of God (i.e. the stuff that happens to us in our lives and in the world at large, whether “good” or “bad”) will be clearly apparent to us. To put it in the negative, you won’t see God’s actions on this planet or in your life as “good, acceptable and perfect” if you haven’t already decided in your mind to walk His route, see through His eyes, surrender to what He wants and not what you want.
To make my point easier to see, let me paraphrase it and hopefully not, once again, get the reformers in my life too mad at me:
“Don’t do the easy human thing. Don’t think being just like everyone else around you is all there is in this life. Instead, let God’s perspective completely renovate you by first changing your thoughts, and by default, affecting your actions. If you take those first baby steps of belief, God will be faithful to show you He was right all along. His wisdom will become clear to you as you walk the road He has chosen for you, but not before.”
Romans 12:2 is an encouragement to take God at His word, no matter what, which, in our current dimming-as-we-speak world, becomes more and more of a challenge with every passing day and year.2 This verse is about choosing a life of obedience, not because it 100% makes sense to choose it before we walk the road, but because we believe one day we will see the pleasing fruit of following that divinely recommended/required road.
It says something similar in Hebrews 12:11-
No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening- it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. NLT
Cas (or insert your own name here) will not find motherhood (or insert your own cross here) enjoyable while it is happening- it’s painful! But afterward she’ll be grateful she decided to hang in there and believe what God said about trials and motherhood even when the years dragged on and her spirit didn’t think it could go any further. She’ll be glad she trusted God because in the end, she’ll see just how good and perfect and acceptable the road God picked out for her was after all.
This, my darlings, is how we grow our faith. And when our faith becomes sight one day, and even here on the long road out of Babylon, may we praise Him heftily for being such a Good Parent: one that challenges us, one that loves us, one that is so patient with us.
What are you struggling with, trusting all the while that somehow God will work everything out. Whatever that struggle is, don’t give up. And don’t forget to do what Paul says and try to see all things from God’s eternal perspective, because if you do that long enough, it will change you.
Choose to believe what He says over what you feel, see, think or hear from the world or yourself. Let God be true and every man a liar.3
Ephesians 2:10
Although Roe vs Wade was just now today tossed out of the Supreme Court, so I suppose there is still a little light making it’s way through the putrid haze of our rotting, sinful culture.
Romans 3:4