Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Who Am I Really?
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My name is Thomas Love, I am 41 and married to a beautiful Canadian queen. At the moment, my wife and I are living with my in-laws in Canada awaiting her Green Card (I am an American) as we are transitioning from the mission field and looking to relocate state-side.
A brief on my last five years ...
In August 1999 I entered the Teen Challenge program in Florida after spending a few years in some serious depression using drugs and alcohol. After successfully graduating the one year program, I was asked by my director if I would consider working as an intern/staff member at a Teen Challenge center in Barbados. I agreed to volunteer for one year, so within one week of graduating, I was on a plane and on my way to Barbados. I arrived in Barbados in September 2000 and immediately began working as an intern/staff member. It took seven months to get my one year work permit processed and therefore it was at the end of the seven months that my permit began. Though I had only volunteered for one year, I agreed to stay on for the duration of the work permit.
Within one year of arriving in Barbados and attending the Living Room church group (a Dove Christian Fellowship International affiliation), I met a lady who also attended that church and was a missionary with Youth With A Mission in Barbados. Incedently, the YWAM campus was only 2 km up the road from the Teen Challenge Barbados farm. Both ministries reside in the parish of St. Philip which of the 11 parishes in Barbados, St. Philip is considered the farm and country. The only thing that separated the two campuses were hundreds of acres of sugar cane fields.
It was shortly after we met that one day, I sent an email to Heather thanking her for befriending me during the times when I needed someone to listen to me. Little did I know that I sent that fateful email on her birthday. She replied to the email. She also told me what it was she did at YWAM and that she was having problems with her Toshiba Tecra laptop and that she wished she knew someone who could help her with it. Little did she know that a friend of mine at church had just recently gifted me with a similar computer, so I put her in contact with him. It was then that I realized we had some similar interests.
As things seemed to progress in our relationship and my work permit neared an end, I decided that I wanted to do a Discipleship Training School course at YWAM Barbados. So in September 2002, I did a DTS with the outreach taking me to Olinda, Brasil. Upon returning from outreach and graduating DTS, March 2003 Heather and I got married. I stayed on as a staff member and we both worked in the Office Administration end of the ministry. Heather worked as the Accounts Administrator and I as the Communications Department Administrator.
In June 2005, as our tenure neared an end, we felt the need to come home, help her parents in their moving process and work on rebuilding relationships with Heather's kids from her first marriage. While at the same work on our transition state-side and begin to build a business for ourselves.
And thus is the birth of our dream, KbIT Solutions. KNOW your calling from God; BUILD relationships with those around you; IMPACT the culture you are in by walking in your calling; by doing so you will beign to TRANSFORM the nation the culture is in one person at a time.
N.B.: Teen Challenge (in most cases) is a one year residential intense discipleship program catering to life controlling addictions (mainly drugs and alcohol but can extend to pornography, gambling, etc.) For those who may not be familiar with Teen Challenge but may be familiar with the classic story of The Cross and the Switchblade, this is the true story of the beginning David Wilkerson's Teen Challenge ministry.
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Metamorphousthe?
You might say, "Metamorphousthe??, sounds Greek to me.", and at that you would be correct because "Metamorphousthe" "μεταμορφουσθε" is a Greek word. I took this phrase directly from the first portion of Romans 12:2 to better explain who I am and what my life is about. Even though using the word "metamorphousthe" in a search engine will return primarily biblical references it should be noted that this is not a religious word. The author of the book of Romans was using a common point of reference that the readers would be familiar with to describe the position that a follower of Jesus should take in this present lifetime, the lifetime of a believer. So why did I choose the word? Most of us use nicknames that are descriptive of us or what and how we think, this is descriptive of my mind-set.
Romans 12:2 begins:
In my words: "Do not try to follow the standards of this world, but be someone totally different and set yourself apart by changing your entire mind-set"
King James Version: "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind"
The MESSAGE: "Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out."
Greek Textus Receptus: "και μη συσχηματιζεσθε τω αιωνι τουτω αλλα μεταμορφουσθε τη ανακαινωσει του νοος υμων" "kai me suschematizesthe to aioni touto alla metamorphousthe te anakainosei tou noos umon"
"Conformity" ("συσχηματιζεσθε", "suschematizesthe"= "to fashion alike") means "with or together + form", it is a form, manner, resemblance, agreement, etc. of something; to model yourself after or to be like. But this never changes WHO you are deep down, your true character. It can be said that an actor conforms himself/herself to the character that they are playing but the actor will always be who they are. The true form of the word "hypocrite" means "under + disguise or crisis" and was the original word used to describe a stage actor, it literally means "someone who acts or feigns."
"Transformity" ("μεταμορφουσθε", "metamorphousthe" = "be transformed") means "across or move + the form of", to change the shape or form of, to take on a new form. The word can and should also be translated "metamorphosis" which means "change + shape". We remember the transformation of a caterpillar to a butterfly or a tadpole to a bullfrog. This is not something that just "grows up" but something that becomes "totally different". The true form of the word "repent" comes from the Greek word "μετανοέω" ("metanoeo") means "change + mind". To repent from your ways is not to say, "I'm sorry." or apologize but means to walk a different path or to change your way of thinking.
As people who follow Jesus, we are told by the author of Romans to lay aside our lifestyle that is patterned out of the selfishness of this world's ideals, bring death to that inside man (or woman) that strives to live and be like these fashions and become someone totally different. Not a hypocrite that only lives it in a crisis situation or in front of others as an actor on a stage. But BE that person.
That explains a lot. How can I transform myself? I am who I am and I will be this till I die. The question I had to ask myself then was, "Who am I really?", "Why am I the way I am?", and "Why do I think this way about things?" I have to see if the pattern and lifestyle I live (and think) is a pure and holy lifestyle that brings honor to God and His character (which has eternal results) or does it bring honor and glory to myself, puffing me up (which has temporal results). I think it might be fare to say that none of us are TRULY unique in the purest sense of the word. We pattern or simulate in some fashion or another the culture around us, our family, society, nation, politics, the era that we live in, etc. In the most part the system of the world (man's ways and ideas, and thinking) are mainly self centered and at a lot of times, dishonoring to God. In short, the intent of mankind is full of sin. This is what we should strive to be different from.
Start a new mind-set now. If you feel that what I state is just religion or false ideas, I would put a challenge before you. I am SO confident that my God is real and calling for you specifically and by name, that this challenge will not go unheard. Tonight, while you lay in bed by yourself alone, say something simple like, "God, I have lived not really trusting that You truly exist to have a personal one-on-one relationship with me as my Guide through life. I want to know if You are TRULY real, if You TRULY exist. Make Yourself known to me tonight in a way that I will KNOW till my dying day that You are who You say You are and I will trust my life with You from then on." I KNOW my God is real and answers prayers. If you say something like this with the most sincerest heart, wanting to genuine KNOW with all surety, if He does not answer you then you may walk away not believeing in Him till your dying day.
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