{"id":1798,"date":"2022-07-13T10:57:37","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T14:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1798"},"modified":"2022-07-13T10:57:37","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T14:57:37","slug":"the-hope-of-transformation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/13\/the-hope-of-transformation\/","title":{"rendered":"The Hope of Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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For more than 4,000 years, on three different continents, many of the smartest people in the world pursued a dream.
\u00a0
They yearned to turn ordinary junk into treasure.\u00a0 It was the dream of alchemy.\u00a0 Through a combination of research, magic, and laboratory trial-and-error, alchemists in China, India, the Middle East, and medieval Europe searched for the mythical \u201cphilosopher\u2019s stone\u201d \u2013 a substance that could transmute ordinary metals like lead into an endless supply of precious metals like silver and gold.\u00a0
\u00a0
No one knew exactly what the philosopher\u2019s stone looked like.\u00a0 It was rumored to be orange and exceedingly heavy.\u00a0 When ground, it was supposed to yield a fine red powder that could dissolve in any liquid and withstand the heat of any furnace.\u00a0
\u00a0
Everyone agreed that when they finally had the stone in hand, it would prove to be the ultimate key to human joy.
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The stone was also called \u201cthe elixir of life,\u201d because it would be able to resurrect dead plants and animals.\u00a0 It would heal every human disease and grant its owner immortality (much like the mythical Fountain of Youth).\u00a0 Common salt crystals would be transmuted into diamonds, and (interestingly) the stone would somehow generate perfect representations, or clones, of the one who possessed it.\u00a0
\u00a0
The stakes were high.\u00a0 The rewards unimaginable.\u00a0 Many of history\u2019s brightest minds devoted their best years to pursuing the Magnum Opus<\/em> (\u201cgreat work\u201d) of finding the philosopher\u2019s stone.\u00a0 Sir Isaac Newton \u2013 arguably the smartest guy who has ever lived \u2013 spent more time researching alchemy than either physics or optics.\u00a0 Sir Robert Boyle, one of Newton\u2019s contemporaries and widely regarded as the father of modern chemistry, was first and foremost an alchemist.\u00a0
\u00a0
Note that the root chem<\/em> (a Greek word that connotes “the art of alloying metals”) is at the heart of both chemistry and alchemy.\u00a0 The former discipline became wholly legitimate.\u00a0 The latter has now been wholly discredited.\u00a0
\u00a0
Contemporary scientists assure us that the philosopher\u2019s stone does not exist.\u00a0 It never did.\u00a0 There is no magical \u201csomething\u201d than can change the ordinary into the extraordinary.
\u00a0
But, of course, that very claim is at the heart of Christian spirituality.
\u00a0
The apostle Paul insists that those who follow Jesus “are being transformed into his image\u00a0with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).\u00a0 The Spirit slowly but surely \u201ctransmutes\u201d our thoughts, attitudes, and actions into those that honor God.\u00a0
\u00a0
What might that look like?
\u00a0
Your spouse has infuriated you.\u00a0 You\u2019re about to retreat again into your fantasies \u2013 you know, the narrative where you\u2019re with that other person you realize you should have married, and now you\u2019re so very happy.\u00a0 But because Jesus calls you to faithfulness, you decide not to go there.\u00a0 You turn back again to try to listen and to love your partner as best you can.
\u00a0
You flip on the TV and that politician you cannot stand is getting more national exposure.\u00a0 It used to be just that you couldn\u2019t endure that person\u2019s political views.\u00a0 Now you cannot even hear the sound of their voice without cringing.\u00a0 But because Jesus calls you to love those whom you perceive to be enemies, you stop this time.\u00a0 You choose to pray that God will somehow bless this person.
\u00a0
You bristle at work because once again that arrogant, self-serving member of your team has stolen your thunder, invaded your space, and said things to management that put you in a bad light.\u00a0 When others in the office who have been similarly offended have gathered for coffee and are gleefully pouring on the abuse behind that person\u2019s back, you\u2019re just about to chime in when you remember that Jesus is your Master.\u00a0 Strengthened by the Spirit, you choose not to say the things you were going to say.
\u00a0
You walk through the mall or the bank or your school\u2019s cafeteria and you see that person who\u2019s always on the outs \u2013 whose looks or race or hygiene or behavior inevitably seems to put up walls.\u00a0 But because Jesus calls you to love people the way that he loves people, you stop this time.\u00a0 You ask about their life and their concerns.\u00a0 Just by paying attention, you make their day.\u00a0
\u00a0
For four millennia, people all over the world cherished the dream of alchemy.\u00a0 Surely some kind of exotic chemistry could be found to transform everyday junk into gold.
\u00a0
But no one ever succeeded.
\u00a0
Except for God.\u00a0<\/em>
\u00a0
He is the Alchemist who can take whatever junk is in our hearts and minds and, through the grace of his Son, transform it into something eternally beautiful.

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For more than 4,000 years, on three different continents, many of the smartest people in the world pursued a dream.\u00a0They yearned to turn ordinary junk into treasure.\u00a0 It was the dream of alchemy.\u00a0 Through a combination of research, magic, and laboratory trial-and-error, alchemists in China, India, the Middle East, and medieval Europe searched for the mythical \u201cphilosopher\u2019s stone\u201d \u2013 a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1799,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[468,236],"class_list":["post-1798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-alchemy","tag-transformation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1798"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1800,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions\/1800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}