Today marks 2 years alcohol-free. I personally struggled with alcohol for years prior to finally quitting and detoxing myself. The journey has been quite enlightening as I have put my focus on my family, my health, my work and schooling, and my relationship with God. My wife has been front and center in helping me overcome my demons, and to her I cannot thank enough. I have transformed for the better, and the journey does not end there.
The pinnacle message of the gospels, besides the belief in Christ, is the concept of transformation. This profound concept should not be sought out in a lighthearted fashion, but is something that should be endeavored in a manner that constitutes the whole of one’s being. It is an attempt to refashion the self through physical, psychological and spiritual exploration and application.
We are complex creatures, and often times we are quite distinct within our own self. Made up of sub-personalities and diverse personas, a unification through the process of transformation is required. The concept of transformation through the “spirit” is not solely a union of the self with God, but also a unification of the self within itself, we becoming one with the Source and one within our self. Only when we become unified are we able to utilize the potential that resides within.
The book of James expounds on this well as the author states that we should be patient and allow the various trials and tests, which to a varying degree should be sought out in an experimental fashion, mature and transform our implicit potential into explicit reality. Through the process of learning and growing do we become more unified in our self that enables us to manifest the potential within, and the more efficiently and effectively we are able to contend with reality as such.
Again, this same concept is echoed in the teachings of Christ in the book of John when speaking of the vine and the branches, and how we (branches) should be pruned (transformed) in order to make manifest the potential within us that brings God the glory. This pruning effect implies the death of what once was in our life that hinders our growth, whether this be substances, unhealthy foods, faulty interpretational schemas, and the like, which gradually unifies the self. By seeking out novel information while ridding ourselves of hinderances, we can transform and become what has laid dormant within.
Michael Thacker 