You can’t be around me very long before you get exposed to Romans 12. Rdomans 12 is, for me, one of those passages that has become something of a life passage. No matter how many times I have read it, meditated on it, researched it, it always challenges me. It’s one that I think is very appropriate on a day that we are celebrating the milestone of new members.

The usher in a theater noticed a man stretched across three seats, so he went over and whispered, "Sorry, sir, but you’re allowed only one seat." The man moaned something but wouldn’t budge. "Sir," the usher said more loudly, "if you don’t move, I’ll have to call the manager." The man moaned again but stayed where he was. The usher left and returned with the manager. When he couldn’t dislodge the man, they called the police. The officer looked at the man and said, "What’s your name, joker?" "Joe," he mumbled. "Where are you from, Joe?" said the officer. And Joe replied painfully, "The balcony." (story file, 15.6.1)

We have all come from somewhere, haven’t we? And where we have come from has a lot to do with who we are now. Our experiences have given shape and substance to our lives. And for some of us, like Joe, that means a lot of pain. Others of us are pretty content with where we’ve come from and where we are now. But no matter where we have come from, when we come to Christ, our first and greatest calling is to allow our lives to be reshaped, or restructured, by the grace of God.

That’s a tough assignment, and it means radical change for all of us. And by "radical" I mean that it goes to the very root and heart of who we are.

Such change does not come easily, and even the need for this change may be a surprise, especially to us grownups, who think we are supposed to have life figured out. But if we are serious about being a part of God’s family—God’s kingdom—this reshaping is essential.

It’s kind of like dealing with the Y2K bug we have heard so much about in the last few months. I'll be honest with you. I was not among the first to climb on the Y2K bandwagon. 2000 is just a number, isn't it? How can a number threaten our finances, our heat and light and water. Our very well being? We use two digits to refer to the year in dates. So what? It worked fine in '67 and '75 and '98. Why should it be a problem in '00? Yet, I know that many of you have been working overtime for the last several months to get your company’s computers Y2K ready. The bug is real.

I became interested in the Y2K discussion when I discovered that it isn’t really about computers. It’s about a mindset. A mindset that says, "look, this is the way I’ve been for years. This is how I think, this is how I wear my hair, this is what I eat for breakfast, this is the way I deal with my feelings, this is how I interact with people. It’s gotten me this far, why should I change now?" But the Year 2000 Problem has become a kind of a wake-up call for those of us who are sort of set in our ways. A challenge to habitual ways of thinking and acting that may prevent us from moving confidently and effectively into the new millennium.

The emergence of the Y2K problem reveals some important information about our assumptions about life and the belief systems that we've operated with in the 20th century. We believed that it would be possible to go to the moon. We believed that it would be possible to create more and more advanced technologies, but we didn't really believe that the year 2000 was coming. Or maybe we didn't believe that we would be alive to see it. My father died in 1970, when I had just graduated from high school. At the time, the people who sold us the gravestone convinced my mom that it would be cheaper and easier to add her name to the stone then than it would be to do it later, when the stone was sitting in the graveyard. So, her name is on that stone, with the dates of 1919-19___. This past May, she turned 80, and every indication is that she will outlive the 19___ on the gravestone. It will take more than computer software to fix that Y2K bug. (Don’t even get me started on the fact that she has also remarried!)

The millennium challenge for Christians is to let God do some reconfiguring in our lives—not just our computers—but our minds and our hearts, so that our life system will be compatible with the kingdom of God. This kind of reconfiguration is not just about two-digit dates, but about everything. Priorities, food, shopping, spending, writing, working, playing, sleeping, talking, building, interacting, everything. Everything about our life needs to be re-shaped by the grace and mercy of God.

The Apostle Paul tells us that this reshaping or restructuring depends on us giving two things to God. Our body and our mind.

Our Christian Life begins when we give our bodies to God. That is what it means to worship God, Paul says. In the time when he wrote this letter, there were a group of people called Gnostics who believed that the life of faith was merely a "spiritual" thing and it didn’t involve the physical self. As long as your "spirit" was in tune with God, it didn’t matter what you did with your body. Pretty convenient, huh? The Christian faith says just the opposite. If our spirit is in tune with God, that will radically affect what we do with our body as well. When we follow Christ, we do not give just a part of ourself to God. We give everything, including the kitchen sink.

We cannot reshape our behavior unless we recalibrate our thinking process. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds. . . . The root word of renew is new. In Greek there are two different words for "new." I might say, for instance, that I got a new pencil to replace my old one. And the second pencil is just like the old one, except in point of time. But I might say that I got something new to replace my pencil. And that something new is a computer. A computer isn’t just a new kind of pencil. It’s a whole different animal. That’s the kind of newness that Paul is talking about. In essence, God wants to give us a new brain, a brain that will think in a whole new way, guided and shaped by the grace and truth of God.

To once again quote my famous husband Ed, behind every action is an intention and behind every intention is a belief. The re-shaping of our behavior does not begin with our behavior, and not even with our good intentions. It begins with the belief system that is imbedded deeply in our heart. And I am not talking about the "beliefs" that easily roll off our tongue but are forgotten the next moment: "I believe in God the Father Almighty. . . ." What do you really believe about yourself and about where you stand with God and other people? If you believe you are no good, you will act accordingly. If you believe God treasures you and provides for you, you will act accordingly.

When you give God both your body and your mind, when you allow God to fix that spiritual Y2K bug that keeps you from growing, there will be some very distinct results. First, you will gain a realistic view of your self in the context of the Christian Community. You will understand that you are gifted and that your gifts are needed for the body of Christ to function as it should. You will understand that you also need the gifts of the other members of the body.

Paul says don’t think too highly of yourselves. And we know pride is a dangerous thing. The reverse is also true. Don’t think too lowly of yourself either. I see more false humility among Christians these days than too much pride. I don’t have any gifts. Not like so and so has. But that’s just an excuse for not letting God work in your life. You have God-given gifts. And those special abilities are meant to be used. When the individual members of the body of Christ are using their gifts for the good of the body, the church grows and the church is healthy.

When you give your mind and your body to God, you will gain a new and affirmative understanding of yourself. And second, when God has recalibrated your brain to function in the new life in Christ, you will learn to do some sorting. You’ll find yourself turning your back on things you used to do. Things that hinder or destroy your life with God, or your ministry. Paul says we need to hate what is evil. Don’t compromise any more with the things that are destructive in your life. Let them go. Turn you back on them. Even more important, hold fast to what is good. Don’t let go of the good that God is doing in you. Even if it’s painful, even if it’s difficult and takes a long time to complete. Hold fast to what is good.

Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good.

The goal of all this, of course, is to walk forward with confidence as God’s people. Not just into the new millennium, but into the future that God has prepared for us. And God is beckoning us to come.

In the very early days of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a run-down old homestead had to be abandoned to make room for a lake behind the dam. A beautiful new home on the hillside had already been built to house this Appalachian family, but they simply refused to move. The day of flooding arrived, but still the family refused to move. As the bulldozers were brought in, the family brought out their shotguns. No amount of legal talk or bulldozer bullying would budge the family from their home. They finally called in a social worker to see if some kind of negotiating could be done. "We're not going anywhere," the family announced to the social worker. Nobody can make us." The social worker said, "Help me to explain to the authorities why you won't move into your beautiful new home." The man of the family pointed to the hearth, where a blazing fire was burning. "My grandpa built that fire over a hundred years ago," the man explained. "He never let it go out, for he had no matches and it was a long way to a neighbor's. Then my pa tended the fire, and since he died, I've tended it, and I'm not gonna move away now and let grandpa's fire go out!"

This gave the social worker an idea. She arranged for a large apple butter kettle to be delivered to the home. She explained to the family that they could scoop up the live coals from the fire and carry them to the new home where they would then be poured out and fresh kindling added. In this way grandpa's fire need never go out. The family went into a huddle and then agreed to move from their shack in the hollow up to the new home on the hillside. But they wouldn't budge until they could take the fire of their ancestors. (st. file, 15.5.7)

Great story, isn’t it? What happens many times is that we get it backward. We insist on keeping the old shack and let the fire go out.

My prayer for us as individuals and as Morning Star is that we will willingly dispense with old life structures that we no longer need, and that we will keep the fire of God burning in our hearts and in our church.