Recently, actor Matthew McConaughey, of such movies as Sahara and We are Marshall, announced on his website his excitement over learning that he and his girlfriend, Camila Alves, are expecting a child. He wrote the following:
"We are stoked and wowed by this miracle of creation and this gift from God, and so excited for the adventure that will come in raising this child, being mother and a father, and shepherding him or her through this life.”
“Wish us the best, keep us in your prayers, and God bless evolution. Thanks for being fans of me and my work and now this new and miraculous chapter in my life, as me and Camila and our child do our best to just keep living.”
No matter your creed, race, or religion; A-list celebrity or indigenous tribesman - there is no denying the miracle of birth. I don’t know who or what Matthew McConaughey confesses to be “God” in his life, but he is undoubtedly experiencing the same joy that the only true Living God felt the moment He created you and me. I believe that the joy of new life is one given to us by God and is right up there with the joys that we should be experiencing daily knowing that Christ lives through us despite our sinful past and that our spouses live with us despite our present imperfections!
We should all be “stoked and wowed” by the every-day adventure of raising a family. There is no greater calling in life! As family men, we have all been called to be the shepherds of our homes. We are the ministers, pastors, and head-priests to our wives and children. As parents, we have been called to lead our families into a better understanding of God. As believers, we have been commissioned to make disciples of nations. But how do we know if we are properly equipped to tackle the awesome adventure of family ministry or ministry to the unsaved? Theologian, Matthew McConaughey eludes to the answer – evolution!
One definition of evolution is, a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. As a Christian, I must confess – I believe in evolution. I’m not talking about Darwin’s theory of evolution or natural selection. I’m talking about the need for professing Christians to change and become something more than we are today so that we can truly live and ensure an even better tomorrow for our families and for those whom we love and influence. I’m talking about a God-directed spiritual evolution. It’s an evolution that begins with a flesh-driven sinner and matures to a Spirit-filled believer. We become a different, more complex and better form only when we have disappeared and Christ is revealed through us.
Romans 12:2 reads: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (NIV)
If we are not experiencing a continual transformation in the way that we walk, talk, act, and think, odds are that we are not allowing the spiritual evolution that God designed for us, through the completed work of the Cross, to take place in our lives. My pastor coined this process as “progressive realization”. Progressive realization is the Holy Spirit impressing His righteousness upon our hearts by allowing us to see the areas of our lives that we have yet to surrender and submit to His will. We must be obedient to the call of not just changing, but exchanging our will for His. As Christ-led leaders, we need to be setting the example through our lifestyle. It is, after all, through example that we assume the kind of leadership that Christ has directed us to - servant leadership. Our families and loved ones will only respond to the need for change when we first acknowledge and respond to the need for change within ourselves.
It’s through the evidence of change in our lives that others will understand God’s perfect will and perfect love for their lives. We must break out of the pattern that this world sets and adopt the pattern that Christ lived and has laid out in the Word. It’s time to recongize the need for the continual exchange of our will for His. It’s time to become something better; not just for ourselves but for the lost, weary, and broken. It’s time to become Christ to the world around us. God bless evolution!
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3 comments:
Abel, you are an excellent writer. You organize your thoughts well and then feed them to the reader in easily digestible pieces. Your writing provokes the reader to think and/or analyze what you have presented. That is the mark of a really good writer.
Very clever use of what, at first glance, appears to be controversial subject matter in this article. Again, the mark of a good writer. You have the ability to draw the reader in and then keep his attention with clever wording that is at once, both eloquent and easily understood.
I love reading your blog. It appears that it is true - still waters run deep. Keep writing - your writing is inspirational.
thank you for the encouraging words. as a writer, i try to chew-up my thoughts and then gently spit them down the reader's throat like a momma-bird feeding her young.
you are the best mother-in-law ever. love you!
Thank you. I find that image a little disturbing - in a positive way of course, but still disturbing. :-) Love ya!
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