I was tidying the DVD cupboard up earlier this afternoon. That is a job I do not enjoy. The kids put them in the wrong places all the time and I have to rearrange the shelves so we can find things. The last movie I put back was Aladdin. I have seen it many times and my favorite character is the Genie.

Don’t you just wish sometimes you had one!

We live in a world where, for most of the time, we expect things to happen or change but we don’t particularly want to wait or work for it. For example: we want to be healthier or slimmer but we don’t want to change our eating habits or add some exercise to our daily routine. NO. We would rather something or someone came up with a magic solution. Or maybe we would like to get on with our family and friends but we don’t want to make the effort and invest time into building or bridging relationships. We would rather people just liked us and accepted us the way we are, so, that could be easily one of our 3 wishes! Money is always a good one too. We want the bigger house, the newer car, the holidays but are not willing to work hard and save up for it. We would rather it all landed on our plate!

Our Christian lives can reflect that as well. We want to be like Christ, we want to serve Him better and learn more about Him, but sometimes we wish something could happen or someone could do the work for us. We expect that our church leaders and pastor will do it, or maybe the Sunday school teacher. Perhaps the home group leader will be more successful. We want to be changed, transformed instantly with the click of the fingers. We go to all the events and sit there hoping that just by being physically there the work is being done for us, so we can tick the box. We forget that we must take responsibility ourselves for the process of becoming. It can’t be rushed. God is changing us, moulding us, teaching us, little by little.

Have you ever tried to lose weight without going through the process of changing your eating habits and exercise? Whatever weight you shed comes back on with a vengeance, i know. That happens because our bodies never learn to change and adjust. If we try to skip that process it does not work.

Spiritually it is the same. It is through the process of picking up the Bible daily, praying, seeking God’s guidance, experiencing, learning, trusting, giving up self that we are transformed into someone that will be more like Christ. There is no magic trick! With a lot of help from God I hope one day to get there!