Breathing different air …

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My iPhone does something I find particularly annoying.

In the evening, at night, or any time I’m in a place where the lighting has gone dim or dark, my smartphone automatically dims itself to parallel the darkening environment I find myself in. I usually find this change to be too dark for sufficient reading on my phone, and have to manually readjust the lighting.

As I was doing one of these readjustments last night, it prompted me to think how our culture is similar to this automatic darkening. It seems like the world we live in defaults to “going dark” when events, either small or significant, occur. It’s as if we want to find something to rage about and something wrong to dislike in others.

Our world revels in darkness, and defaults to it!

Is it any wonder the apostle Paul gives us this vital exhortation:

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect,” Romans 12:2.

If we conform to the world, we will, like the world, default to “going dark.” But letting God transform us is like having our own air supply, as alluded to by Dr. Raymond McHenry in his book, “McHenry’s Stories for the Soul”:

    During an interview with a group of astronauts, the crew was asked, “What do you think is the single most important key to successful space travel?”

    One astronaut offered the following response: “The secret of traveling in space is to take your own atmosphere with you.”

McHenry concludes, “This observation from space helps us better understand Paul’s admonition for Christians to not be conformed to the world. By carrying the atmosphere of Christ with us, we can thrive in the hostile environment of this sinful world.”

By allowing God to change the way we think, we can thrive even in this hostile environment of this sinful world!

Have you allowed God to transform you by changing the way you think? Or is your default one of “going dark”?

Scotty