Week 10—Wednesday 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Week 10—WEDNESDAY
A NEW NAME—“AFTER”
“Man is made for conversion.” We ended yesterday with the account of an alcoholic coming to himself and his real destiny in conversion. We said that the last step in conversion is development. In conversion there is an awakening of the total person—body, mind, and spirit. One night during the Ashram after the conversion of the alcoholic mentioned yesterday, I asked for volunteers who would offer themselves—first, for full-time Christian ministry; second, for the mission field; third, as full-time workers as laymen, through their regular occupations. He stood up on all three! He explained that he was ready to be a minister, a missionary, or a full-time worker as a layman—and meant it. I urged him not to decide his lifework suddenly, but to circle, say for a year, like a homing pigeon gaining its homeward directions, and then decide. But he has already committed himself to go to a theological seminary to prepare himself for any one of these three. Before his conversion he was “beside himself,” another person, now he is himself, fulfilling the destiny of his being.
An African after his conversion took the name “After” as his real name. For “before” he was another type of person, only “after” did he begin to live. Everything happened “after,” so he had to have a changed name to express the changed person. The Africans give names to visitors after studying their characteristics. I have been humbled by my new names and have tried to live up to some of them. One they gave, “Reconciler,” is the one I love most and am challenged by it most. Another was so overstated that it was the word became word, not “the Word became flesh,” for I knew it didn’t apply!
But when the soul is converted, one awakens us from a bad dream, a nightmare, as one who has recovered from a dreadful sickness, and worse, from death. The Scripture describes it as a passing “from death to life.” Only now you must spell life as Life.
O Jesus, we sit at your feet, clothed and in our right minds, and we look into your face and know we see the face of our Redeemer. We are startled at the change—so changed, so new, and so altogether unmerited. We will spend our days in telling all around the story of your grace. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Henceforth I shall be an illustration of “after,” not “before.”