Which was, I came to realize, simple enough to be embarrassing. The prophetic message that speaks to both conditions is the message of the Christ, the message of God's ability and willingness to transform us so deeply and completely that death is changed to life, that leaders become servants, that the powers are defeated and the meek inherit the earth. It works as it urges us to align ourselves, in all the parts of our lives, with God's power and love When we do so, we respond to the world differently. We respond to others differently, and we respond to ourselves differently. I can't tell any one of you how that transformation plays itself out in you, and no one can tell me.
People have very different experiences of it.
Jan Wood writes about an experience of transformation in a discount store checkout line on a hot and humid day. The checker made mistake after mistake. The heat was oppressive, the line was long, the children around her were whining and their mothers were irritable. Jan herself was more and more impatient. And she decided to pretend that Jesus was in line beside her.