Conversion (Part I)

The billboard stood unceremoniously among the Jersey's and meadow grass in a Wisconsin cow
pasture boldly proclaiming its message. On the left was a 15 foot line graph, in red and in rapid
decline, captioned: Investments, Stocks, and Bonds. To the right, a 15 foot high portrait of
Wisconsin serenity, a lakeshore emblazoned with the words, "Wisconsin Real Estate." In
between, in giant white on black letters in case passers-by missed the visual message,
"CONVERT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE."

Everyone is talking about conversion these days. Convert paper investments into real property
before it's too late. Convert your old television to digital HDTV before it's too late. Convert
increasingly worthless paper money into gold before it's too late. Convert to non-fossil fuels
before it's too late. Convert to healthy eating habits, exercise, and our new cholesterol drug
before it's too late. I even got a notice from both a magazine and an antivirus software company
suggesting I convert my subscriptions to automatic, multi-year credit card payments before it's
too late.

The call to effective conversion is nothing new, though. When Jesus first appeared on the scene
by Israel's Sea of Galilee after his baptism by John in the Jordan River and his forty day fast in
the desert, he came "proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel'" (Mark 1:14-15). Translation:
"CONVERT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE."

The Greek word for "repent," metanoia, means more than just believing something different than
you've believed before. It means more than kicking yourself for being such a scoundrel all these
years. It means more than taking an inventory of failure and laying in a lifetime supply of guilt
and shame. These kinds of reactions to Christ's invitation may have some limited function, like
internalizing a new worldview that recognizes right and wrong and makes appropriate use of
guilt to produce movement toward forgiveness, but the word means more than just a spiritual
makeover that has us looking pretty and waiting for heaven to arrive.

Repentance means "change." Change in the way we feel about ourselves, yes. And yes, change in
the way we relate to God. And yes, change in our final destination. But it also means a radical
change in the way we live in this world all the days we walk on the face of the planet. The call to
repentance, the call to conversion, is a call, an incredible invitation, to become a fully naturalized
citizen in the kingdom of God, which, though we wait for its final fulfilment, is nonetheless
present.

The kingdom of God is like a woman eight months pregnant. Does she have a baby? Every time
the little darling kicks her in the ribs or takes a seat on her bladder she knows she has a baby, but
in a few weeks time, after much pain and effort, everything will change and she will hold her
baby in her arms, and she will have the baby she already had.

The rule of God in the hearts, lives, and destinies of people and planet has already arrived,
though it is still coming. Jesus' arrival in the manger, his life, his death on the cross ushered in
the kingdom of God and now the invitation goes out: There is an option for your life. There is an
option of hope, and strength, and faith, and purity, and wholeness, and living within the purpose
for which you were created. There is an end to rebellion and being used by the powers that be
like a pawn on some cosmic battlefield. The option is the kingdom of God and the call is to
convert before its too late.

That's the good news for today. Next time I'll let the story of Dirk Willems illustrate a post-
conversion life and what it means to accept the invitation to enter God's kingdom. God bless
you.