Not Just the Heart

"Have you asked Jesus into your heart?"

So goes the ubiquitous question at many Christian conferences, camps, and youth group meetings. The response to which gives measurable results of the "success" of such gatherings and ministry. As if giving assent with raised hand or an emotional walk down the aisle was the end goal toward which we are working and for which the Christ lived and died.

The focus on a raised hand response has left us in the shallows of measurable results. We are called into deeper waters. Waters that seem to have an unfathomable depth. 

Faith is more than a heart thing. It is more than putting a date on a calendar when Jesus came into my heart. Faith and discipleship must be about a transformation of not just our hearts, but our eyes, our hands, and our minds, as well. 

Faith must lead to a transformation of the manner in which we see our world and the individuals we engage around us every day. 

Faith must lead to a transformation of the manner in which we engage our world through the work of our calloused hands and the journey of our blistered feet. 

Faith must lead to a transformation of the manner in which we think about all things bringing an end to convenient categories and tribal thinking. 

As Richard Rohr writes, "Transformation begins with a new experience of a new Absolute, and, as a result, your social positioning gradually changes on almost all levels. Little by little you will allow your politics, economics, classism, sexism, racism, homophobia and all superiority games to lose their one-time rationale. You just 'think' and 'feel' differently about most things...Your motivation foundationally changes from security, status, and sabotage to generosity, humility, and cooperation. If you do not want to go there, you'd better stay away from the Holy One" (Authentic Transformation).

This is the good news for which the entire world waits. May we be completely transformed - not just in our hearts, but our eyes, our hands, and our minds, as well.