A Journey of Transformation

We can’t wait to see you on SATURDAY:

• Village Fair and UnFair 5K on August 17th.
• Next Death Cafe Friday August 30th at 4pm. no

You may watch the Recording HERE.

Definitions of Transformation:

• An internal shift that brings us in alignment with our highest potential. 
• Transformation is at the heart of our lives and affects how we see and relate to the world and our place in it. 
• Transformation provides a clear path for each individual to live up to their full potential and to live their lives with greater purpose, clarity, and passion.  

A continuing topic of conversation from one of my Yale classes has been the journey of transformation.   What is transformation?  What transforms us?  How are we transformed? 

The Bible is a book of stories that have to potential to transform us.  They transform us by allowing us to put ourselves into the stories to help us see who we are more clearly.  They help us to look deeply at who we are and who we are becoming (and the ways we sometimes avoid becoming).  Stories help us to ponder and see deeply.  Who we are as heroes.  Also what parts of us resonate as the villains, the bad guys, the confused, and as the neutral characters and people.  These stories encompass entire human experiences to help clear our way and help us to better orient to what matters most.  

Transformation is not about “perfecting” ourselves. It is not to turn us into something “new” or something “better”.  There are those great and big Transformational Stories, but more often, transformation is about discovering who we are and orienting ourselves toward deep abiding love and belonging, which just might be…God/Grace/Universe.  It’s a slow journey of transformation through attention and continuously working toward the light and Goodness.

Most of the time, transformation is awaking what’s already within.  Shining a light on the deep abiding love and belonging within.  Seeing ourselves as God sees us and living that life.  Discovering that we are already transformed by the act of seeking.  Seeking to be transformed.  Seeking the God that is also seeking us.  

Love and Trust.  Transformation might be the experiences that allow the living water that Jesus speaks of to bubbles up inside of us. Yes, we are just as deserving of this deep living water.

It’s so easy to fall into habits and patterns that muddy the clear water.  It’s so easy to contribute to the disarray of life.  Both in our own lives and in the discord we contribute to with our fellow travelers on this journey of life.  Orienting ourselves toward love…transforming ourselves…helps us to see when we fall into our old patterns and habits of stagnant, muddy waters that keep us from the clear, bubbling living water of Grace.  

We often hold ourselves back from transforming.  We hold ourselves in these patterns of victimhood and blame.  We blame others. We wait for our rescuers.  We wait for the answers to become obvious.  We wait for it to be fixed—and sometimes we don’t even know what “it” is.  We get caught up in our patterns of anger and hate, fear and bitterness. 

We see the ways we hold ourselves back in the story of the woman at the well. This is the familiar story of Jesus asking the lone Samaritan Woman for some water.  We might immediately imagine the concerns this woman might have had being alone and unprotected at the well and being addressed by a strange man.  

We begin to uncover her story with Jesus.  

She’s had five husbands.  She’s the subject of gossip (always a form of discord).  She’s waiting for someone to fix it. She’s waiting for someone to save her.  She’s waiting for it to get better.  She looking outside of herself for solutions to her life.  She keeps following the same pattern and hoping somehow it will magically change.  

It gets uncomfortable.  In order to be transformed…we must open the doors and windows to see ourselves clearly.   Before anything can change or be transformed, the woman at the well has to be…seen first.  She has to see herself.  She has to acknowledge her own muddy and unclear waters.  Jesus helps her to see.  

Jesus sees her.  And she doesn’t like it.  Transformation is never easy. To orient ourselves toward love and the fresh bubbling living water takes seeing our own messy, muddy waters and habits and making changes. 

The woman at the well resists this very cleverly. She talks around and away from herself.  She talks about prophets and religion.  She talks about mountains.  She talks big topics to distract from being seen and from having to look within.  Anything to get out of the discomfort of this moment of being seen and looking within.  

We all do this.  The sensitive subjects are places we don’t want to probe…and we certainly don’t want others to probe.  But when it gets uncomfortable is usually a sign that this is our muddy place that must be seen in order to be cleansed of the ick to clear the way toward transformation.  

We would rather just ignore this part of ourselves and hope that time will take care of things.  That it’ll all fade away and go away.  We don’t want to face it.  We tell ourselves we can’t face it.   We trick ourselves into thinking…maybe later.  Later, when things are less hard we’ll face it.  But not now. Always later.

In order to be transformed, we must see clearly where we are…Now.  There is no later.  Only now.  

In the passage with the woman at the well, the woman even says that she is waiting for the Messiah to fix and make it better.  Only then will things be better.  Only then.  

Jesus says: I am the Messiah you are waiting for.  In some ways, he is telling her that the moment is now.  Right here.  Before you.  There is no later. There is no rescue.  There is no excuse. Now is the time to let the muddy waters become the bubbling clear living waters.  

This clear seeing opens the doorway for her to be transformed.  

Maybe it’s not even so much that he is the Messiah, but that suddenly her own life is clear.  Suddenly the bubbling waters arise within her when she suddenly is awakened to: What if???  What if he IS the Messiah?  What if the moment is Now?  What if all this time I’ve been waiting for this moment to say Yes to transformation?

We can also be transformed.  The living water isn’t for those people of the past or those people from the stories . It’s not for some far off future.  Transformation is for now.  We, too, can also be the catalyst for the transformation of others.  

We might ask of ourselves the same:

What if the messiah (Jesus, Love, Grace, God) is already with us?  What if it’s not something for later, but something for right NOW?  

How does that change how we see the world and our place in it? How might we be transformed by the bubbling living water…right now?  How does Jesus/Love open the well for us in this life, in this moment, to orient ourselves toward what matters most?

The living water bubbles up from inside of each of us, if we only clear the way and open hearts and minds for God.  For what matters.  For Love.  To orient away from All bitterness, fury , anger, shouting, and reviling, all malice.

To transform. To be a part of the Goodness, the Love, the Kindness, Compassion and Forgiveness, we must let go of the old and stale waters (habits) that hold us back from the clarity and freshness of the living water.  

To be imitators of God, beloved children, and to live in love we must reorient ourselves toward what matters most.  The fragrant love of God. The gifts and the blessings of God that abound in every single moment of our lives.  Not the “good” moments or the “it’ll be better when” future or the “when I’m less tired” times.  Every single moment is an opportunity for blessings and transformation.  

Transformation changes the way we approach each other.  The Stories awaken truth and give us a compass toward our true north…Love.  Love of one another.  Love of neighbors.  Love of our enemies.  Love of this Earth/Garden.  Love of the Way. Love of Jesus. Love of Grace.  Love of God.  

Transformation does not make us perfect or better.  Transformation is a Seeking.  A seeking that brings us together with and for one another in this world.  Transformation is an orientation toward (a seeking of) God/Grace, that changes how we see and relate to the world.  It has the power to create a clear path (of bubbling living water) toward living to our fullest potential.  To do our part toward the Goodness of this world.