“Why TransformING Your Story, and not simply Transform Your Story?” was the question posed.

According to Merriam Webster, the “-ing” at the end of a verb creates a present participle which renders it a continuous action.  Not a one-time occurrence, but an ongoing process. 

Perhaps leaving off the “-ing” in transform would render a sense of accomplishment, but perhaps it would also bring a sense of complacency that stalls any forward movement or progress.

God’s plan of restoration or transformation is a gradual, unending experience and lifestyle with God, not simply a one-time occurrence that ends in completion with after-abortion support.   Rather than a one and done event, abortion recovery should be one step in an ongoing process of transforming a life story.

The first Biblical tale in Transforming Your Story is about the woman at the well in John chapter 4.

¹³ Jesus replied, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. ¹⁴ But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

Jesus states that the water he offers will become a spring within the person who drinks of it.  A spring is water that flows and progresses.  If you drank of the spiritual water offered by Jesus during your abortion recovery journey, that water is to become a flowing spring. 

When water does not flow, it stagnates and can bring disease. Have you ever seen or smelled stagnant water?  It is dark and cloudy and the stench can be like raw sewage.  Stagnant water can be an incubator for bacteria and a breeding ground for disease carrying mosquitos.

Flowing water impedes the movement of bacteria, rather than nurture it.  Flowing water fosters healthy life. In abortion recovery, Jesus deposits a flowing spring of water that should propel us onward in continual motion with God to bring a healthy spiritual life.

If we stop moving with God, satisfied with how the view and experience of our abortion story has been transformed, we are in danger of stagnating spiritually.  Our perceptions and thinking can become slow and murky, attitudes can begin to stink, values can begin to decay, and diseased actions can be an invitation to the enemy of our soul.  The hard work done in abortion recovery can begin to erode.

We can nurture the flowing, living, spiritual water that was deposited within through ongoing awareness, practice and application of what was learned during the abortion recovery journey.  Remembering and applying truths learned about ourselves and our God and his grace. Practicing prayer and listening for God, engaging in healthy spiritual community for support and encouragement, applying the spiritual tools gained to our everyday lives.

Don’t settle for stagnation. Continue to flow with God in transformING your story!

2 Timothy 3:14, AMP: But as for you, continue in the things that you have learned and of which you are convinced [holding tightly to the truths]….

Let’s Talk: In what ways may your journey be stagnating?  How have you continued to flow with God?  What changes might you want to make to nurture the spiritual water within?

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The Transforming Your Story guidebook begins with a friend’s metaphor of gardening. Her tale intersected my story perfectly.  The subsequent chapters of the book mirror my own journey to offer a guide for others to begin the work of examining, categorizing and pulling the “weeds” of destructive emotions and thoughts that have crowded the garden of our heart, mind and soul after an abortion so that the healthy “vegetables” of hope that God has planted there can grow and nourish us and others.

After we labor in weeding our story it is appropriate to pause and look at the healthy planting that God has done as we worked and reflect on the goodness of what was done.  God did that when he created the earth and everything in it.  Each time He worked, he took a pause and said “it is good!” (Genesis. 1:9-31).   And He placed humans in the garden of his creation and invited them to continue to cultivate his land with Him. He knew the weeds were coming (Genesis. 3:6-7), and He had a plan to re-create or restore the goodness that was made. He knows that weeds come back, and that the garden needs continual tending.

Thomas Greene, author of “Opening to God: a Guide to Prayer” writes, “The first … encounter with the Lord is never a final, completely transforming revelation”.

Completion of Transforming Your Story is not a final discovery of God or ourselves. Rather, it is more of an initial encounter, an invitation to continue to draw near to the Lord, to explore or examine, continue to weed and continue to grow in character and relationship.

That is what this blog is about.  It’s about the journey that we continue in partnership with God to re-create or transform old habits and messages, how we view or experience past and present harms and how we live our stories out going forward. It’s about a lifestyle or ongoing process of transformation.

I have continued to hike and weed this ongoing path myself since my first spiritual encounter with a transforming God.  At times the journey has felt like a step forward, sometimes like a step back, and sometimes I’ve let the weeds grow until nearly blocking my way.  The journey has and is not taken perfectly. But I believe that being willing to try to practice what was learned and to learn new things is the important part.  Desiring to make progress, one day, or one moment at a time.

My prayer is that this blog will be somewhat of a continuation of the book.  But in monthly, bite-sized, and lighter chunks! I encourage you to pause and reflect and to respond to God’s invitation to continue to draw near, weed and grow.

Let’s Talk: How have you reflected on God’s goodness in the garden of your soul?  What might it look like for you to respond to God’s invitation to partner with Him in your ongoing story?

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