Flashback Friday: Mechanics vs. Organics
Every Friday I dig into the archives and dust off an old post. If you haven’t read it, it’s new to you!
I’m not a big fan of mechanical change. That’s what happens when we add to our spiritual, physical, or vocational disciplines because we’re s’posed to.
(If you’re not from the south, “s’posed to” is a colloquialism that you may know as “supposed to.” i.e., “I wudn’ta eat them taters on m’own, but Maw said I was s’posed to.” When you do something because you’re s’posed to, it’s usually forced, temporary, and not much fun.)
The much better option is organic change, where our very natures are changed from the inside out. That change only comes from the power of the gospel, an “other-than-us” power where Jesus transforms our hearts and minds, and as a result we want to do the things that we’re otherwise s’posed to.
But in my life, I’ve found that mechanical processes can often lead to organic change. Exhibit A: in 25+ years of being a Christian, I’ve never once hopped out of bed first thing in the morning and ran towards my Bible in order to spend some time in God’s word. Nope, more often than not I ooze out of bed, mope into the kitchen, drink a couple of gallons of coffee, catch up on the morning news, read a few dozen updates on The Twitter, sand and refinish the dining room table, and work on my diabolical master plan to rid the world of that unfortunate little bald and all-too-whiny cartoon character known as Caillou.
Read the entire original post here.
