Ask My Dad!

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 4:17-24

I grew up in south Louisiana - Sportsman’s Paradise they call it - where the weekends are devoted to huntin’ and fishin’, unless it is Mardi Gras, of course. I remember being in the duck blind with my uncle before dawn one morning, glad not to be alone, as we watched a cloud wall lit by the remnant of moonlight roll toward us. The silence made this phenomenon even more eerie. As the wall enveloped us, though we were seated side by side, we could not see each other, and could not see our hands in front of our faces. And then, it moved past us and a sliver of light became visible as the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon.

Do you remember the “old self” that our passage references? I do. Things I said, or actions I wish I could take back or do over, my entire belief system was self-serving (see Romans 1:18-32, Romans 6:20-21). Like the Ephesians, we too were once “darkened in our understanding and alienated from God”. Like sitting inside the cloud wall, our hearts were hardened and we didn’t even know it! We could not see. I remember doing what I thought was best next, but how does one know what is best next when they are directionally impaired by lack of sight?

Life in Christ, however, is not one where we live by the compass of our own desires. We are given a new orientation when we trust that Christ has saved us by giving His life for ours on the cross. His blood covers our sinful past (Hebrews 9:11-14). By having faith in this work of Jesus on our behalf, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of us. He is our new compass! As the Spirit grows us, shaping us evermore to be like Christ, we are unable to put our old self back on. Those clothes do not fit any longer. See Romans 8:9-11.

My dad recently came to saving faith in his late 70’s and the struggle is real. Since he has been given sight (the fog has cleared) and he has been made new inside, he would tell you he cannot go back to living as his former self. Yet, the way forward feels unfamiliar, like learning your way around a new city, a new culture, or a new workplace.

Learning how to walk is hard. We fall down, we make mistakes (even after decades of walking in the faith), but God has promised to complete the work He began in us (Philippians 1:6). Dad is bearing this feeling of deep regret for the life he wishes he had lived. He is worried about his sons who are not yet in Christ. I hope he will come to see that a life turned to Christ is never too late. The Apostle Paul shared this same struggle when he said,

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,  I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

There is nothing better my father, or any of us, can do now than RUN toward God! We progress in the Christian life at the rate in which God renews our minds in Christ (verse 23). That means we are not just reading His Word, we are absorbing it into our lives. We are being transformed by it through the Holy Spirit’s work in us. By these means, we are “putting on” the new self.

Where are you in the journey? Are you sitting in the duck blind in the middle of a cloud wall? Are you struggling to read the Word of God and be transformed by it? Ask Him to clear the fog. Ask Him to make you hungry for His word. You will only regret that you did not come sooner. Ask my Dad!