New life — adjustment required!

When I became a Christian, a neighbor said, “It happens in an instant, then you will spend the rest of your life trying to figure out what happened!”

Today, the book I’m reading says the same thing: “To explain exactly what happened to Saul is difficult.” Then it adds: “But there can be little doubt, from Paul’s own testimony, that the change in his life was due to a personal encounter with Christ and a new relationship to Him.”

Imagine what it is like for a person living in Asia or the Middle East to suddenly move to a country in the West where the language, culture, history and almost everything else is different. Adjusting is a challenge. Help is needed. This person cannot get a job without learning the language. Learning the language is difficult yet trying to understand idioms and figures of speech, and a new sense of humor is even worse. They also have many questions about appropriate behavior in the workplace. However it is no less challenging to instantly be in a personal relationship with the Creator!

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8–9)

The experience of being spiritual reborn instantly puts new Christians into the delightful grace of knowing God loves us, He is with us and we understand Him — if only just a little. I remember feeling as if finally someone really understood me and I could say with the psalmist . . .

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. (Psalm 139:2)

However, as with the new immigrant, the challenges are still there. I noticed the language, words like: redemption, justification, sanctification, propitiation and other terms that seem so familiar now but not at first.

Another challenge is learning to think differently, to drop all former values and cultural norms and learn that God’s ways are not my ways nor do they resemble the ways that I had been accustomed to before He came alone:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

The Christian culture is different from the world’s way of thinking and doing things, at least it is supposed to be. Sadly, I also realized that Christians can be stuck in former habits and ways of living. Entering the family of God can be the most welcoming and wonderful experience but it can also be confusing. Some family members often behave more like those outside the family and the challenge is learning how to discern the differences and choose the way of the Lord rather than what comes more easily.

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:16–18)

New Christians usually realize the importance of the Bible. It is God’s amazing gift — His guidebook for this new life. Hebrews 4:12 speaks of it as being “alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God uses it to help me differentiate between the old life and the new. He also gives that wonderful inner voice of the Holy Spirit so I can know what He is thinking . . . 

For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 2:11)

The Bible tells me about the ways of God, the ways of people (both Christians and not), and how to live as an alien in this world because I’m now a citizen of heaven. 

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Dear Jesus, after nearly fifty years of adjusting to this reality, I sometimes feel like a stranger in my own skin. I’m so thankful that You are with me and very often make Your presence known. In the impossible and confusing situations of life, that sense of You is enough to give me peace and even joy. As for trying to figure out what happened, the best way to say or describe it is simple, only two words — Jesus happened! Thank You for blessing me with You. Amen.