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| Broken limb in Monroe |
What a person does is, for the most part, a function of what a person is. One's everyday choices, attitudes, and actions give evidence of a person's heart. If one chooses to do something which is antithetical to their heart, and persists in doing that thing, it will eventually lead to a transformation of the heart.
Howard Thurman says that “growth means development in the life of an organism. It means change manifest in structure.” “Change manifest in structure” is: transformation. This is structural, systemic change. As this happens it leads to changes in attitude and behavior.
Thurman writes: “There are many adults who for various reasons have escaped this essential discipline of their spirit. True, in terms of physical and intellectual development they have continued to grow. Their bodies and minds have moved through all the intervening stages to maturity, but they have remained essentially babies in what they expect of life.” (Howard Thurman: Essential Writings, 52)
Two things work together to bring about, by God's Spirit, deep change in the human heart. They are:
- Abiding in Christ. Connect yourself, daily, to Jesus, like a branch is connected to the vine.
- Obedience. Choose this day whom you will serve. Consistently choosing righteous, Jesus-behaviors, will bring about new habits of the heart.
- 1 & 2 often operate in a dialectical fashion, with a give-and-take between the two, one leading to the other, and so on.
