Do not conform 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. (Romans 12:2)
Have you ever been pranked on the golf course? A classic golf prank is putting a fake snake in or near someone’s cart. It never gets old.
Bernhard Langer once disguised himself with a beard and floppy hair to act as a maintenance worker and sprayed Padraig Herrington pretending to water the green. He started a loud leave blower just before Phil Mickelson teed off. Tom Lehman orchestrated all this.
You may be old enough to remember Allen Funt. He’s the guy who produced the TV show called Candid Camera. I can’t believe it premiered in 1948 and stopped in the ’70s. The show’s genius is that it caught people in the act of being themselves. It produced lots of laughs and offered a fascinating look into the human psyche.
In one episode titled “Face the Rear,” an unsuspecting person boarded an elevator and naturally turned around to face the front of the elevator. That’s when three actors entered the elevator and faced the rear. Hidden cameras in the elevator captured the angst of the “prankee” (if that’s a word). To turn or not to turn, that is the question.
Finally, a fourth actor entered the elevator and faced the rear. This was played out several times; without exception, the person facing the front would turn around and face the rear. The social influence exerted by those facing the rear was too overwhelming for that person to remain the only one facing the front.
Now, juxtapose that with Romans 12:2a, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world…” The Message puts it this way, “Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.”
That’s easier said than done, isn’t it? Especially when the dominant culture is facing the rear.
In one of his inspirational blogs, my friend Rick Nielsen suggests that “conformity is cowardice.” He says it is taking the path of least or no resistance and writes, “You can play the game according to the rules established by the dominant culture, but even if you win, you lose!”
I’ve been contemplating where I have been conforming to culture. As I think about it, I’m realizing that is probably where I need to be transformed. How about you? Here’s the second half of that verse:
Romans 12:2b from the NLT: “…but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”
The Message reads: “Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you and develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Prayer: Lord, transform me to be the new creation you have called me to be in Jesus Christ, not only for my benefit but for those who have been squeezed into the world’s mold.