Renewed
Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
I look at the news every morning. It has become my habit since getting a smart phone. I got the phone when my daughter started college. It was the way I kept in touch with her, using her favorite medium – social media.
At first, I would simply catch up on anything she posted the night before. We live in two different time zones, so I am often going to bed just as the most interesting part of her day is getting started.
Slowly, my habit began to grow. It grew to include not just my favorite college student, but also family members and friends – some long lost, all of us connected through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and LinkedIN. (I still haven’t started “tweeting”.)
As my circle of connection grew, I began to take in more than the news of my immediate family and friends. I learned about people whose lives touched the lives that touched mine. I read their posts, their memes, their opinions and their perspectives. Eventually, I read their recommendations for books, blogs and websites. I followed some of these threads and began getting more to read in my feed. Some of it was news of my neighborhood, the nation and the world. Some of it was just dressed up as news. Much of what was presented as objective fact was actually opinion, perspective and conjecture. I began to feel weighed down. I wasn’t sure what to do with all this news, much less how to filter it. What was fact? What was fiction? What was important to listen to? What was not? What began as a lovely way to connect with my daughter became a weight upon my heart – most days before I’d even had breakfast.
Which is why Romans 12:1-2 offers so much grace. In this age of supersaturation of social media and the 24/7 news cycle, it reminds us that we do have a filter. We have been given a filter by God:
Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
God invites us into relationship and promises to show us what is good.
Philippians 4:8 puts it this way:
. . .
whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
These are godly things - good things, acceptable things, things that will help us discern what is right, what is wrong, and how to respond to world around us. They do not inform us, conclusively, what is fact or fiction. Instead, they give us guidance about who to be in this confusing world – people of truth, honor, justice, purity, seekers of excellence and givers of praise. These things are not a diversion, an escape, or an excuse to disengage from the world that God so loves. Rather, they guide us to engage the world in ways that lead to life.
There is much to be found on social media and other mediums that is life-giving and there is much that is not. There is much in our communities and our world that is worthy of praise and there is much that is not. When we ground ourselves in the ways of God, we can more readily discern one from the other.
I am grateful for people, agencies and institutions that help us in this process of discernment. For the last 25 years the
Susquehanna Valley Ministry Center (SVMC) has done just this. SVMC has helped to renew minds in classrooms, church halls and conference centers, offering courses and continuing education events, training ministers and lay leaders alike. They have served to ground countless children of God in the pursuit of not just education, but spiritual worship and transformation.
May SVMC’s ministry continue to honor God by serving God’s people as we all seek, daily, to be renewed.
Janet Ober Lambert is the Director of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, a ministry training partnership of Bethany Theological Seminary and the Church of the Brethren Office of Ministry. Janet earned her MDiv from Bethany in 1991 and served two churches in Pacific Southwest District before joining the Academy in 2017. Janet and her husband, Simon Lambert, reside in Richmond, Indiana. Their daughter, Lauren, attends college in Fullerton, California.
