Be Transformed!

When my brother and I were growing up, Transformers was one of our favorite shows to watch. When the first Transformers movie came out, my dad took my brother to go watch it in the theaters. In one of the epic scenes of the movie, the main character, my brother's hero, Optimus Prime, dies. My brother, overcome with emotion, cried out behind tears, "Optimus!" What a silly thing, eh? It's just a story, and Optimus comes back to life anyways...

Many years later, the Michael Bay iteration of Transformers came out. In the finals scenes of the film, Optimus Prime is about to fight yet another epic battle with Megatron. "Give me the cube, boy!" shouts Megatron. Sam refuses and with that, Megatron smashes the building into fragments, and sends Sam flying down, plummeting to the earth. Optimus Prime catches him and later expresses amazement that Sam would risk his life for the cube. Sam replies, "No sacrifice, no victory." The movie goes on, and if you're not a total hermit crab, you'll know that Megatron gets his gigabyte ass whooped.

So what's the point? Why is this even relevant?

1. A Hero died and came back to life. Jesus was the ultimate Optimus (I'm going to get backlash from that one some day haha). He was murdered, and yet rose from the dead.

2. No sacrifice, no victory. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be victorious with Him in his resurrection. Sometimes in our lives it will take a real sacrifice of time, money, emotions... Our very lives, in order to achieve victory.

3. Last, but not least... A story should be SO moving such that it TRANSFORMS you. Kudos to my geeky brother for having a child-like faith back in the day... It is with this faith that we must be so impacted by the death of our Hero, that we mourn His death, celebrate His return, and as such, TRANSFORM our lives. It should never be called into question whether or not your life has been changed by Him... If there really is faith behind it, it should be fairly obvious.

Romans 12:2 (NIV)
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is---his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Be transformed!

The challenge: Is it very evident in your life that Jesus' story is Truth for you? How has your life changed form as a result of your faith? Is it about time you shared that story with someone else?