Renewal

           Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2) 

According to Ryan Denison, “In America, faith-based groups contribute more than $316 billion in savings to the US economy every year. In addition, congregations, religious institutions, and faith-based businesses contribute roughly $1.2 trillion of socio-economic value to the country, which is the equivalent of the world’s fifteenth largest national economy.” How the church can bless the culture into spiritual awakening (How the church can bless the culture into spiritual awakening (denisonforum.org))

According to Prof. Rodney Stark, religious influence in America likely saves Americans $2.1 trillion dollars per year in terms of reduced crime (imagine if all the religious folks committed the same crimes as everyone else at the same level as everyone else.) Religious & home schooling saves America about $630 million per year. Religious activity may save America about $216 billion that would otherwise have to be spent on mental health and $115.5 billion on physical health. If religiously inspired volunteerism disappeared, the volunteer rate in the US would drop by 28%, and the decrease in the value of American volunteerism by $47.3 billion. If American unemployment rates among Christians were what it is among nonattenders, $27 billion dollars more would have to be spent on unemployment, and welfare payments would be $123 billion higher. His estimate, therefore, is that religion saves this nation $2.6 trillion per year. (Stark, Rodney, America’s Blessings, West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2012, pp 163-168)

You may dispute these findings if you wish. I’m not sharing them to inflate our egos. I suspect that it’s a significant fraction of what we are actually saving the country, and a tiny percent of what we could or should be doing.

As I get ready to head into fall, I’m praying about this. Last year, my ministry was mostly to people who weren’t around. I’m glad I did it, but I’m not sure it’s the best use of my time. I’m thinking I need to work neither smarter nor harder but wiser. This is one of those “what exit do I take” questions, so I’m sure God will lead me. But that doesn’t mean that I should be lounging.

Sigh, this all means that it’s time for me to be setting goals. It’s a good time of year for lots of people to set goals, because we’ve come to the time of year when it’s becoming OK to get productive, to think, to do, and to matter. The summer idles are coming to an end.

What I mean by working wiser doesn’t mean working less hard. If anything, it may mean harder, but it also means working on purpose, toward something that is useful. It means not doing a lot of work for little or no outcome. And at the very foundation of all of that is being transformed by the renewing of my mind.

Some obvious questions come to mind. What are my essential roles? What do I know I’m supposed to do? How am I conforming to the world? What can I do to stop doing that? What can I do to renew my mind? What is the transformation I should be seeking?

Some of these aren’t hard questions, but we tend to think that means we don’t need to think, or to work at them. Coincidentally (ha!) last night some social media friends were talking about good books to read for the fall, and that touched off an idea. In addition to my long list of books to be read someday, I’m making lists of good reads for each season, and then using those to make a list of good books for each month. But what about good books to read for transforming the mind? What about good books to read to become wise? Or good books to read to become a better writer? Or a better person? Or a better citizen? Or a better Christian?

I know, that’s a lot of books, but haven’t we been talking about words recently? If my mind is going to be renewed, and I’m going to be transformed, it’s going to require good words followed by the application thereof.