A Note from Me
I used to think conversion was a single moment. I prayed a prayer, walked an aisle, marked a date in my Bible. That was it—I was converted. But the longer I apprentice myself to Jesus, the more I see that all of my life is just one giant conversion. Every moment is an opportunity to turn, more and more to God, to be made a little bit more into his loving likeness.
These conversions are hidden, like roots inching along in the dark. Sometimes it looks like:
An irritation that exposes my impatience
A loss that teaches me to let go … in a good way
A joy that reminds me life is a gift
I can’t manage or control any of this. It’s what God does. Conversion is his work, his grace, his way of slowly and steadily showing me how to love like Christ. My part is both hard and simple: pay attention, participate, say yes, keep turning. See every day as part of one long conversion, every moment as a chance to be remade into love.
Because that’s really what time is for: learning to love like God loves.
A Voice from the Christian Tradition
“...I no longer conceive of God’s grace as a bolt of lightning which strikes our lives in a clearly miraculous fashion. To those who have experienced conversion, it may seem rather like a miracle. But the miracle has taken place not through any one inexplicable event, but rather through a succession of events, all leading in a single direction. It is the collective experience of those events which assumes a miraculous character for the convert.
—Emilie Griffin, Turning
A Question to Carry
What small conversion might be unfolding in your daily life?
Keep turning,
—Jon
Dear Jon, I am so grateful that our Lord Jesus put his beautiful hands on you and said “Jon, I am going to teach you how to write!” Emilie’s book, Turning, is sitting beside your small book (we’re on the road and I can’t remember the title) sit on my beside table together. Yes, I am 81 and the work of conversion becomes sweeter and more particular as Holy Spirit works his ways into my heart. Our Father’s love for his children is above and beyond anything that I could ask or imagine. Thank you, Jon! Jeanie Cannon
I'm fascinated at present the importance of a wilderness season to spiritual formation as I'm present in such a season. The Turning for me is the 'purging' that I'm undergoing ... gentle and necessary for my formation in Christ.
BTW, Jon, so pleased to see you kicking off this years's Renovate Book Club with your new book. I look forward to exploring it with your trusty guiding hand.
Go well.