Making Change

Click on a short video of someone looking back over their life or looking to the future and it will likely include a portion of the song, “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac. Part of the chorus states:  “Well, I’ve been afraid of changin’ ’cause I’ve built my life around you.”

What led me to think about the influences on our lives and how they affect us was introduced through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Now, I’m not a huge fan of AI, but I do understand that it can be useful and even interesting in its current state. (When I think of its future state, I can only envision the beast system in Revelation 13.) A few days ago, I decided to see what a new haircut might look like on my son. He has had the same style for a while, so we played around with different cuts to see the possibilities if he decided to change it up. Using the original picture I uploaded, we asked for several changes. As we progressed through those changes without using the original photo every time, the picture began to look less and less like my son, to the point of his features becoming distorted and, in the end, making him look like someone else entirely. (We did get a few laughs though.)

This led me to think about the ways in which our lives are changed, for better or worse, depending on what we allow to mold us. Influences are myriad and everywhere, but when it comes down to it, we have two choices. We can let the world change us, or we can let Christ change us and never the twain shall meet.

Isaiah 5:20 says:

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

In today’s society, lawlessness is given a pass, while righteousness is mocked and condemned. An anything goes mentality is supported while truth is silenced. Common sense is a relic. Up is down, wrong is right, truth is relative. Those who accept the demands of the world without question are changing like my son’s picture, ever straying from God’s plan for them and distorting who they could be in Him. They dance around a pit in the dark.

John 3:19-21 states:

“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

It is quite evident that some people don’t want the Light. They want the darkness, though they would never see it that way. They want what the world offers and would consider much of that good. The only problem is that, “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” (2 Corinthians 11:14), and without Christ as the foundation, people don’t know what true light is. The “light” offered by Satan looks good at first, but in time the glow wears away, leaving behind confused minds, lives torn apart, families in turmoil, and the desire for something more than this world can offer.

In Matthew 24, Jesus’ disciples asked Him to tell them the signs of His second coming and of the end of the age. The first thing He said was to, “Watch out that no one deceives you.” Just as AI is deceptive in pictures and videos, the ways of the world are too, and if we align ourselves by what the world says is good, we too will look like my son’s picture.

Thankfully, we don’t have to be like the world. Jesus came to save those who are lost. He is the light. He is truth. If we follow Him, we will be changed in the best of ways because, as we go through the process of sanctification, we begin to look less like our old self and more like Him. We are not distorted by the world’s ways. Rather, we become clearer and more cleaned up each day. That is the kind of transformation I strive for!