I Need Transformation More than Inspiration<\/a>“.) I responded with the thought that
\nChristianity offers to transform us instead. She wrote back:<\/span><\/p>\n“I bet most of us
\nexperience inspiration to be fleeting. Maybe some of us can taking that quick
\nmoment of energy or excitement and transform it into a new habit or routine
\n(e.g., I read something that makes me feel like I want to be brave, I decide to
\ntry to do one brave thing a day, I stick to it, and over time I become more
\nbrave) but my instinct says it’s the rare person who is that disciplined or
\ndetermined. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nIn as much as I’ve
\nexperienced transformation, I feel like it’s nothing I’ve controlled. I am definitely
\na different person from college, and different in ways that I like, but I can’t
\npoint to anything I decided to do to make me that way. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\nFor you, is it that your
\nspiritual practices are something you can sit down and actually do that you
\nfeel aids in the transformation you’ve experienced? Do you simply trust that
\nthey “work” even if you can’t point a finger at a prayer you said one
\nday and credit it with something transformative happening in your life? To me
\nit seems like that would take incredible faith.”<\/span><\/p>\n
<\/span><\/p>\nCheck back this afternoon for my
\nresponse. Meanwhile, what would you say? How does transformation occur? <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week, I referenced an ongoing conversation with a reader about whether or not Christianity can inspire us (“Where Do You Go For Inspiration?” and “I Need Transformation More than Inspiration“.) I responded with the thought that Christianity offers to transform us instead. She wrote back: “I bet most of us experience inspiration to be fleeting.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\n
How Can We Be Transformed? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/how-can-we-be-transformed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Can We Be Transformed? - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last week, I referenced an ongoing conversation with a reader about whether or not Christianity can inspire us (“Where Do You Go For Inspiration?” and “I Need Transformation More than Inspiration“.) I responded with the thought that Christianity offers to transform us instead. She wrote back: “I bet most of us experience inspiration to be fleeting.…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/how-can-we-be-transformed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-17T09:00:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How Can We Be Transformed? - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/how-can-we-be-transformed.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How Can We Be Transformed? - Thin Places","og_description":"Last week, I referenced an ongoing conversation with a reader about whether or not Christianity can inspire us (“Where Do You Go For Inspiration?” and “I Need Transformation More than Inspiration“.) 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}