join the dots

If you came to this page looking for a simple, fun children’s activity – you’re probably in the right place, but for the wrong reasons! Anyway …

I’ve been thinking a lot today about transformation. To start at the beginning – yesterday my ‘praying in colour’ doodle in my journal was rubbish. It was bland, uninspiring and didn’t stick with me for the day – it was so dull that it didn’t get as far as being coloured (it’s still a pencil drawing). But today was a bit different …

I was reading a passage from Acts 1 this morning where the disciples are described as being “constantly in prayer”, and I was thinking about how you get to that state. Is it repetition or discipline or giftedness or …? Whatever it is, it’s certainly about being transformed – and so my mind wandered over to Romans and “be transformed through the renewing of your mind”. This stuck with me and became the doodle of the day.

Then I read a bit of Heschel, which said:

“Mindfulness of God rises slowly, a thought at a time. Suddenly we are there. Or is He here, at the margin of our soul?”

So I’m thinking that to be transformed, we need to start to change – step by step, no matter how slowly until we reach a state where the transformation seems real (if not complete). When we realise that we are a butterfly not a caterpillar.

Then as I was driving between meetings at work and listening to a podcast from Speaking of Faith, I heard a fantastic, amazing, humbling, uplifting account of profound transformation. I exhort you to take the time – about 55 minutes – to listen or watch this, I am convinced that you will be moved and encouraged.

I’m not going to spoil any of the story, but it reminded me of Gandhi’s saying:

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

And to paraphrase – you must be the change you want to see in yourself!