Conversion means a turning point or reversal in the course of a person’s life returning to God, removing their mask so to speak and revealing their true identity. Theoretically, conversion has two faces, divine and human. It means the moment in time when we respond to the call of Jesus Christ and see our sins, and then feel a great need to repent for those sins. As his life is unmasked and his true self begins to shine, he begins to see the face he had before he was born, so his main concern is the love of God and that is marked by His Grace with both internal and external significance. It’s pure poetry.
Rich man, poor man, beggar, thief, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief. Our society needs all types of human intelligence to thrive, but how do we get to this point where everything seems blurry? When and why do we even choose to hide behind a mask and be someone else? Well, we live in a fast-paced world driven by live media that constantly shows and tells us all the things that can make us different. Sometimes it’s the death of a loved one from seventy-five years of marriage. How do you continue to live when your other half, your better half, is gone? You ask yourself, “How can I live when a part of me is gone? You seek medical help to mask the pain. For some, they were born into an abusive family and they seek out drugs and alcohol to mask themselves and try to erase their lives. Others simply get taken in by people and fake personalities. At some point you realize that you are broken and lost in your own illusion. Yesterday has passed and over time you have forgotten who you really are. With our generation in a constant state of flux, it is becoming increasingly difficult for God, let alone Jesus Christ, to tear us out of our pitiful state of consciousness and bring us back to reality!
Because we mask our true identity, God and Christ tell us in the Bible to “love your neighbor and not judge”. You can’t judge a book by its cover. The mask is the person you see but isn’t really that person at all, so you can’t judge by their appearance, values, worth, opinions, or character role. You judge their mask. We must understand our need to see the truth in God’s reality. When God, Christ and the Holy Spirit say it is time to break down those walls, to come back to God and our true selves, conversion represents the infusion of divine grace into human life and a resurrection of spiritual death to eternal life. We can only turn by the power of God’s grace and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within us, purifying and conforming us to be like the image of Christ, a continued life of prayer and repentance.
Conversion is the beginning of the unveiling of our journey to God and eternal life. So, let’s open our books, the story of our life, exposing our true character and begin to honestly read the journey that was to be ours, the one that God had planned for us. I pray that you always hold it true to your heart, and the next time you look in the mirror, may you believe God and believe in yourself. This is real freedom!
Karen Marie Parker lives in Sidney, Montana. This is an excerpt from “An Epic Journey Through the Holy Bible with Jesus”. Her books can be purchased at Sidney Health Center’s Caring Corner, traditional bookstores, Amazon.com, Apple iTunes, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and Thrifty Books.com.
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