The Journey 92: Transformation in my personal life

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Read: John 1: 47-51
During examination time, one of the series of question that a student has to answer is the question related to the section “ True or false”. Here is a section in the exams where the student has decipher what is true and what is false. I believe it is not only during exams time that we need to answer question relating to true or false but also in real life.  The Federal Trade Commission recently released its annual report on consumer complaints, related to the false practices adopted by different companies and individuals . The most startling feature of this years report is that the overall volume of complaints in 2011 jumped by more than 24 percent from 2010 to more than 1.8 million . In other sense, there is lot of cheating done to hoodwink the people, or there are lot of people out there who want to make a fast money at the expense of others.  The FTC reported that Identity theft was the one that topped the list followed by cheating through debt collection,  cheating in lotteries, fraudulent ads in shop-at-home and catalog sales, using unfair means by the banks and lenders, internet services, telephone and finally imposter scams. The list may go on  and on. This shows the trend in the society that we live. A society where people are ready to bend down, or break any rules or follow any  means or take short cuts to make fast money. Hard work or commitment has replaced  by short cuts and the path to easy way of life. Life that is being built not on the timeless principles of truth and honesty but on deceitfulness and dishonesty. This is a dangerous trend that has wide consequences in every avenue of our life. To live transformed lives involves that we always look at the means that we use in life and also as to how truthful we are in life.
              This week we shall meditate on the theme “ Transformation in my personal life” based on a disciple that is not very well known “ Nathaniel” but whom Jesus speaks in a very high appreciative and commendable terms, in language and terminology that has never been used before. The portion that we are using for our meditation is from John 1: 47-51. The immediate context of this passage is the calling of the first disciples. Simon Peter and Andrew has listened to the call of Jesus Christ and decided to follow him and then as Jesus leaves for Galilee he finds Philip. Jesus calls him also to be his disciple, to which Philip agrees. Later when Philip encounters Nathaniel, he makes a testimony about Jesus Christ. And when Jesus sees Nathaniel he says “ Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false”. What a powerful statement by Jesus Christ to describe Nathaniel. Here is man who is true to himself and to God and there is no deceit in him. I think this is what is expected from each one  of us as Christians. As we live our life, what God expects us in our life is that the people with whom we relate should be able to find in us an individual who is true, who is sincere and who will not use any fraudulent means to achieve his selfish interest or goals. Personal transformation is all about consciously making an effort to see to it that we remove from our life all things that are untrue, all things that are bloated up, all things that are egoistic in nature, so that we present ourselves as an individual who is true and as Jesus said “ where there is no falsehood”
Jesus calls us to a live a life of integrity and truthfulness. That is the true mark of a transformed life and living as Christian.
How true are you?
 
Let us Pray: Lord you call us to live authentic and true Christian life. This entails that we live a life that is devoid of falsehood, and deceit. Forgive us of our sins of deceitfulness and dishonesty. Help all of us to live life that is a blessing to others. Amen

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