THIRSTY FOR CHANGE

Almost twenty years ago, I became acquainted with a young man who has since become one of my closest friends. When I met him, he was straight off the streets, unemployed, and living with his mother. He was an irresponsible young man, an absent father, and a brand new convert to Christianity. I saw a man who was as full of all of God’s potential as he was of the guilt and weight of his past…a past that was threatening to destroy his chance to change. I watched as he attempted to keep his mind submerged in the mentality of a hustler on the streets while trying to grapple with God’s call for him to be transformed by a renewed mind. This young man waivered for some time, trying to figure out whether to maintain loyalty to the street life he’d known or faith in the Christ who had redeemed him from sin and despair.

My new friend straddled the fence for a couple of years. He began to go to church almost regularly but wouldn’t go to work. He pursued dates with women but made little effort to spend time with his children. He earned a reputation for borrowing money and never paying it back. This fellow seemed to have no sense of integrity or desire for responsibility. He was a taker. He had a slave mentality and too many of us were his enablers. We didn’t realize then that by supplying his every need every time he asked, we were actually degrading him. We were all so passionate about witnesses a true transformation in his life that we couldn’t see how we were responsible for hindering him from becoming the type of man we were hoping and praying God would cause him to become. My friend couldn’t reach a decision to see himself through God’s eyes and fulfill heaven’s plans for him because we were all too busy being god for him.

Soon enough, we all ran out of the money, patience, and time that funding his slavery required. None of us were willing or able to feed his addiction to handouts long term. Therefore, we were forced to let go and let God deal with our dear brother. Of course he was upset with all of us for a while because we had taught him to depend on us to supply all of his needs (and wants). It wasn’t long, however, before he was working full time, living on his own, and getting to know God for himself. The less we did for him, the more he began to change. In a few short years, my friend became a reliable employee, an excellent tenant, a wonderful father and provider, and a man with profound integrity. Because we stopped holding his hand and moved out of the way, God was able to get hold of his mind and transform his life.

Today, my friend is a middle-aged, married, Christian man who leads his home, provides for his family, and opens his home to people in need. He is a leader in his workplace and in ministry; and he is a financially stable individual who invests in his family’s future. Every now and then I see remnants of the young man I was introduced to so many years ago but overall, he’s an entirely different man today. The enslaved mind that had once been ruled by bad decisions and circumstances is long gone. Not only is my friend paying his own way now, he’s praying his own way too!

Aren’t you thirsty to see someone’s mind change so that their lives can change? Is there someone in your life who needs you to stop being god for them? Are you that someone who needs to stop looking for handouts and seek God for a hand up? We should all be passionate about seeing ourselves and other men and women’s minds and lives change until freedom rings. What are you doing today to help imprisoned minds walk out of the doors of open jail cells and into privilege of God's freedom? What are you doing about the condition of your own mind?