Incremental Change vs. Transformational Change
I have had so many conversations with people lately that have left me sad and frustrated. Sad because I see a pattern in their life that reminds me of my own. Frustrated because I know a better life is possible and a more fulfilling life awaits them, but they have to choose it. Many of the people that I have talked to recently stand at a crossroads, and they have a choice to make: incremental change or transformational change. Here is what I have noticed: consistently we choose incremental change, God offers transformational change…but transformational change comes at a price we are often not willing to pay.
Incremental change is the change the church has promised you most of your life. Incremental change is change you are in control of. Incremental change is you working harder to stop the things you keep messing up. Incremental change, at its core has you at the center trying to be better today than you were yesterday. Incremental change tells you if you try hard enough, you can: cuss less, drink less, click on pornography less, eat less, lose your temper less, spend less, lust less, lie less, cheat less. Incremental change is motivated by guilt and shame and feelings of incompetence and failure. Incremental change convinces you that if you can endure the pain of trying harder to cover up your sin and get better, then no one needs to know because “You can overcome this.” Incremental change doesn’t allow you to feel and experience grace and forgiveness because you are constantly trying to make up for the sin in your life. Incremental change carries a small price tag up front, but it robs you for the rest of your life of the peace and joy and victory God longs to provide.
There is another option. God offers transformational change. Transformational change is about surrender and vulnerability and transparency, humility and dependency. Transformational change at its core longs to destroy you and if you are willing to pay the price, it will totally destroy every part of you. Transformational change is messy and bloody and it hurts deep and it will cost you everything. It is pulling all of your junk out and laying it on the table for all to see and not caring what they think about you. Transformational change is committed to not just dealing with the symptoms of your issues, but peeling back painful layer after painful layer of your past, your dysfunction, your sin until the core problem is exposed. Transformational change is recognizing that on your best day you are a failure and a sinner and your only hope is grace. Transformational change is knowing you can never try hard enough to overcome your desire to drink, cuss, lust, eat, lie, cheat. What you can do is surrender to the God of resurrection power. Allow Him to not only destroy you, but bring you back to life.
We have created incremental change because we don’t like the pain of transformational change. Maybe you stand at a crossroads today…and you have struggled and hidden and wrestled with the same junk over and over and over again. God offers to transform you. God offers to give you a new life. It will come at a price, a very high price. But the life that you will have on the other side of confession and repentance and pain and forgiveness will be the life you have been pretending to have all of the years you have tried to change a little at a time.
30 Comments to “Incremental Change vs. Transformational Change”
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[...] pretty radical stuff: There is another option. God offers transformational change. Transformational change is about [...]
Wow. This was good. Thanks.
Thanks Elaine!
Leave room for the crushing!
Very convicting post…..something that stepped on my toes quite a bit, but much needed.
Love this Justin!!!
Wes…Love it…great word!
Thank you Michelle
This is what I call "Greatness!"
Thanks so much Doug…totally a God-thing!
Great post, hard truth.
Thanks Jonathan…
Step 1: Justin Davis picks up a baseball bat.
Step 2: He walks up behind me.
Step 3: He bashes my head with it.
This is the best post I've seen from you in the 6+ months I've been reading your blog. You're so right on all of this.
I think one of the biggest problems with people choosing incremental change is that transformational change can take years…decades…and we like to actually see some results. When we're in a place where God is ripping and ripping and ripping and all we seem to experience is disappointment, pain and anguish we turn to the incremental chance because it provides us with some comfort. We see some success amid the sea of failure and despair.
You need to preach this the first chance you get in the new Bellevue facility.
Jason…I think the perspective of the ripping, ripping, ripping and disappointment can be altered if we see it as part of the process of being transformed. Then it becomes part of a process and not just gut wrenching events or circumstances. Our receptivity to this allows God to do more in us than he could do with us kicking and screaming.
Amen! What an awesome topic that cuts deep but can heal forever with such a peace and satisfaction that only God can gives us.
awesome really needed that
Thanks Dawnmerrie
Rocked my theology a bit. I am still processing it. Not that my understanding disagreement or agreement is that important. Maybe we can talk about it at the Bellevue Campus workday on Thursday?
Gene…would love to discuss your thoughts on this sometime soon!
This is soooo true. Transformational change is VERY hard. However, I am AMAZED by the grace and forgiveness that has been offered me. For years I would try to change the same thing and kept thinking I can do better only to fail everytime . Then one day I finally said no more. I had sin in my life that I prayed for the Lord to expose, regardless of the costs( and it cost alot). I needed to stop searching and rest in him. I didn't care about pretending anymore. Finally I was able to dig down deep and find the core problems. Because of all the pain and trials and reshaping, I will never be the same. I stand in Awe of the attention he took to mold ME and shape and twist ME into what he invisioned me to be. I shed a great deal of tears but I will NEVER forget how his grace and forgiveness extend to me daily. It makes my eyes fill with tears just thinking of it. Go for the Transformation, it is painfully worth it. You will never be the same.
Great thoughts Anita! So glad God has worked like this in your life!
I've been reading for a year now, this may be your best work yet, or just may be what i need most right now!
Thank you.
Thank you so much!
AWESOME post! I will use this tonight in our ladies step study for Celebrate Recovery. That is EXACTLY what we are trying to get across through the TRANFORMATIONAL changes that we have allowed God to do in our lives. I always enjoy seeing that you have a new post. You speak from your heart of experience!
Alison, Would love to know who the CR study went. Thanks for your encouragement!
Incremental change so frequently fails because the changes we are making are so small that we assign very little value to them. And when there is resistance to change (whether that resistance is within ourselves or in others who are trying to block the change) we tend to back away from that change because it just doesn't seem that important in the big picture. Discontinuous change, or transformational change, may have a greater likelihood of success, but it certainly may require more of us up front. I think you hit the nail on the head when you point out that incremental change is about trying to maintain control. Seeking transformational change involves giving up control, even completely, to the ONE who is in control.
Great thoughts @xofweber…control is something I struggle with, and something that hinders transformation! Thanks for sharing!
Why is it so hard to let go? Why, after the choices I have made over the years, i have nothing left, but I still fight to let go?
Continue to love your posts! =)
Transformational change is EXACTLY what we need to do! I believe it is too easy to live our christian lives with "incremental change". It allows us a much easier way to make excuses for the bad choices we make in life. I can honestly say in my own life a "transformational change" was hard to do, because it meant giving up so much of my own selfish & prideful ways… The Bible tells us in Romans 12:2 "Do not to conform … be transformed by the renewing of your mind… " It is not an easy thing do a complete turnaround in life… Yet, I have found, once confessed to God & forgiven by His grace…. a life of true freedom & peace begins!
Thanks so much Kristina! Great thoughts!