Romans 12:2

At the beginning of the school year, the president of my school spoke in chapel and told us how we were to continue revolving ourselves around the verse of Romans 12:2 - to be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we no longer conform to the patterns of this world. Since then, I've become obsessed with the verse. How do we define the patterns to reject? Where do we draw the "secular" boundaries from the God-approved ones? What does community look like in light of these patterns?

I've started to realize that the instructions of Romans 12:2 is a radical call. I believe this is not a call for the few elect; this is a message for the collective body. Do these patterns include the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, where we buy our food, where we work, our caffeine and water consumption, our salon haircuts, manicured nails, credit cards, etc? I could list every artifact of domesticity and popular culture here but that is not the point. I include these things only to express that every single one of our choices is subject to conscious questioning, whether we know it or not. Unfortunately, our society has manufactered value and meaning to so many trivial things.

This post is not a moral annoucement of relevation I want to make to you. I only ask that you be challenged to start thinking about the reasons and motivations behind the patterns of your consumption. Examine your lifestyle choices. Whether moral or spiritual conflict arises, I leave that up to your own discernment. I am just really curious to find our what our idenities as individuals and as a community would look like if we were to be separated by our things.

How much of our lives need to change if we embrace our Christian faiths? I know I am certainly not ready to give up some things. I'm terrified of how emotionally and psychologically attached I am to my things. Yet I wrestle and search for the person I want to be. Romans 12:2 is an incredibly beautiful challenge of faithfulness and commitment.

"Asking how something has been made implies that it has been made by someone. Suddenly there are clues to trace; there is also blame, credit and responsibility to apportion, not just at the start but at each point along the way." - Enloe