2319: Renewal

Super Bowl Sunday. We’ve all been waiting for this day for a whole year. It’s the Christmas of sporting events, though I know some people would argue with me on that. Sunday isn’t my typical day for a write-up, but that’s where we landed this week. I found myself more tired than usual, and that fatigue dominoed into a few days of low energy and slipping out of my routine. But I like to remind myself those days are bound to happen. We’re human, and life doesn’t always follow the plan, and that is okay.

Before I go further, I want to give a happy birthday shoutout to one of my closest friends, someone I truly consider a brother: Matthew McKee. Today is your day to be celebrated, and I hope you feel the love from every direction.

Since this is a Sunday afternoon entry, I’m writing fresh off church service, and the message was right on time. The scripture came from Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” When I first heard it, I didn’t immediately know what to take from it. Some verses hit me right away, and others I have to break down word by word. As my pastor, Dr. Jerry Young, explained it, God made us all one of a kind, and there is nobody who can do you as good as you. That truth can get lost in a world full of constant comparison, where it starts to feel like if you aren’t at the place someone else is, then you must be doing something wrong. But that thinking is flawed from the start because God made that person who they are and will bless them, and God also made you exactly who you are and will bless you too. Their blessing doesn’t cancel yours, and your path was never meant to be a copy of someone else’s.

The message really centered on two things God wants for us, and when these two things are in place, they open the door to a powerful reward: a secure mind and a willingness to persistently refuse certain things so your mind can be properly renewed. A secure mind means knowing who you are. Jesus knows who He is, and that security shows up in how He moves. When you’re secure, you don’t get angry when God blesses someone else, you celebrate it. Only when you’re secure in who you are can you truly be selfless, because you’re not living threatened or competing for a spotlight that was never yours to chase. Nobody can be a better you than you, so stop trying to be someone God didn’t make. Jesus makes the difference. Rely on Him, and He will take you further than you can imagine.

And this part hit me deeply: you are what you are by the grace of God. What God has for me is for me. It doesn’t matter what someone else says, thinks, or believes about it. If God has it for you, it is for you. The second piece is the discipline part, the part that really requires intention: persistently refusing some things so your mind can renew the way it’s supposed to. Sometimes renewal doesn’t start with adding more to your life, it starts with removing what’s been draining you, shaping you, or pulling you away from who God created you to be. There’s a powerful reward on the other side of those two requirements: being secure in who you are, and being disciplined in what you refuse.

Peace,

Zechariah Davis

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