Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to know some people who’ve struggled with addictions– Substance abuse, alcoholism.  I’ve known people on the verge of killing themselves and wrecking their families.  And . . . I’ve known people who’ve done tremendous work kicking those addictions and saving themselves in the process.

And I would say nine times out of ten, there is some form of 12 step program (i.e., Alcoholics Anonymous) that has aided them in their recovery.  The 12 steps have become the gold standard in addiction recovery over the last 80 years.  And with all the good they’ve done, there is one aspect of their teachings that bothers me.  And this is it:

Once you’re an addict, you’re always an addict.  You can be a recovering addict, a recovering alcoholic, a recovering smoker, a recovering whatever, but you are still, and will forever be, an addict.

I have trouble with that. . .

On the one hand, I understand the purpose behind these kinds of statements.  You never, for instance, want an alcoholic to let his guard down, think he’s “cured,” and start hanging out in bars again.  As a reminder that relapse-risk is ever-present, the “Once an alcoholic always an alcoholic” line has a lot of value.

But on the spiritual and social side, I wonder if this type of thinking has some draw-backs.  I wonder if our culture has lazily acquiesced into an “I am who I am” way of thinking– that there are certain categories and labels I am, and forever will be attached to, and nothing can ever change that.  If those labels become excuses and crutches for our continuing poor choices . . .

I wonder if we’ve sort of lost the faith that people

REALLY

CAN

CHANGE.

This is a subject that’s close to my heart.  The whole reason I’m in the Pastor business is because I whole-heartedly believe Jesus can transform lives.  That’s the most awesome thing I get to experience in my job– people who experience serious internal, personal change, that can only be credited to Jesus.  Unfortunately, more and more, I see the tide of culture and our own personal insecurities get in the way of the transformation God wants to work in each of us.

We’ve been talking about Saul (in the book of 1 Samuel), and his insecurities.  Samuel told him he was going to be king, but Saul’s having a hard time embracing that.  He comes from an itty bitty tribe.  He’s got a small view of himself.  So the suggestion that a person from his background, someone as unimpressive as him, would be king over all of Israel seemed ludicrous.  Made no sense.

But Samuel persisted, and in this moment, he made Saul’s assertion and success as a king a near-sure thing.  This is amazing!

Samuel brought Saul to a banquet and anointed him the new king of Israel– beautiful moment.  And then Samuel made Saul a promise: on his way home, he’d encounter some prophets who were filled with the Spirit of God.  Then, he’d get filled with that same Spirit.  And then . . . something awesome would happen:

AND YOU WILL BE CHANGED INTO A DIFFERENT PERSON (1 Sam. 10:6).

Read those words again.  He doesn’t say, “You will become the best you you can possibly be.”  He says “You will be changed into a DIFFERENT person.  A better person.  The old you will be gone.  A new you will be alive and present– a person who’s equipped and enabled to be exactly who God needs you to be.”

And as Saul turned to leave Samuel that day and follow his instructions, the Bible tells us,

God CHANGED Saul’s heart. (10:9).

Saul 2.0 emerged.

I’m sort of imagining a scene from the Matrix, here.  Remember the scene where Keanu Reeves is sitting in a chair aboard the Nebuchadnezzar, he’s got a metal probe embedded in his head, and Tank is downloading mixed martial arts skills into his cerebral cortex?  That’s sorta what I’m picturing happening to Saul here (short of Saul whispering, “I know Kung Fu.”).  He’s getting filled with the Spirit of God.  And this Spirit is doing a transformation in him.  He’s spiritually, ontologically, transforming Saul into the kind of leader God needs him to be.  He’s a new Saul!

Now here’s the thing . . . Too often, I forget that it is that same living, breathing, life-transforming, Spirit that lives in me and every person who calls Jesus Lord.  That same Spirit has entered my soul and transformed the former Dave into a new Dave.  Check this passage out:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Those who are in Jesus have changed!  Jesus transforms the murderer into the apostle, the proud into the humble, even the addict into the . . . whatever God wants him to be.  Every person who is “in Christ” is absolutely capable of doing and being exactly what God wants that person to do and be.  Those who are in Christ are a new creation.

The trouble is, that’s a truth that’s really hard for people to embrace.  In our culture, it’s almost offensive to suggest that a person should change.  They’ll look back at you as if to say, “What are you trying to say about me?”

See, the lie that our culture teaches is that you can’t, you shouldn’t, change who you are.  “You have to learn to accept yourself exactly how you are.  In fact that’s when you’ll experience freedom!– by accepting yourself. And don’t let anyone suggest that you should be anything other than you.”  That’s what culture teaches us.  Macklemore was nominated for a Grammy last year with those words: “I can’t change, even if I try.”  It’s a mantra of freedom for anyone who’s ever felt judged.  And I think I understand the intention.

But to me, this is a decidedly sad message.  Yes, it’s good to be self-aware.  No, we shouldn’t constantly beat ourselves up over what we’re not.  But Christians have to do a better job considering the power of the Spirit’s transforming power in our lives.  We are not cast in stone.  We are not locked into the patterns of our former selves.  We CAN change.  Yes we can!  And too often, “I am who I am” is the lazy way out of living the life, and following the purpose Christ wants you to live.

In Christ Jesus, the old self is gone.  It’s dead.  It’s buried.  The new self, the transformed self, the redeemed self, the forgiven self, the resurrected self has come.   I am a new creation.  I’m  a different person.  And as such, I am no longer bound by the categories and chains to which I used to be subject.  That’s freedom!  And that’s the freedom only Jesus brings a person.

And at some point, a believer has to believe and embrace that.  That’s Saul’s problem, as we’ll see later in his story.  He was transformed into a King that day.  He had every tool he needed to live the purpose God had for him.  But he never fully believed it.

And we can say we’re a new creation all day long. . . but for many of us, there are little voices in our heads that remind us of our former selves.  And while our essence may have changed, our insecurities try to convince us that we haven’t.  God may look at us and see beautiful new creation, but when we look in the mirror, and as we lay in bed at night and stare at the ceiling, we wonder if we’re still the same ol’ me, incapable of doing and being what God has enabled us to be.