Christian Chamelion

So often we hear or say something like, "I am who I am and you'll just have to take me this way or leave me, I'm not changing for anyone."  While this is a prideful thing for many, for others it is a closely held belieft that we should "be true to yourself" or in the King's venacular, "to thine own self be true."

It sounds very American and it even sounds biblical.  In truth, it is neither, it is self-centered and selfish.  The American experiment was not carved out in rugged individualism, instead, it came about by individuals who willingly "pledged their fortunes and their sacred oaths to one another."  They gave up their gentlemen lives and risked everything, including their very lives, for the common good.  That they were willing to change is to put it mildly.

Biblically, you could hardly be further off the mark to say that we are not to change for others - quite the opposite is true.  The apostle Paul very clearly said, "I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some" (1 Cor 9:22) and for our sakes, Jesus himself, "did not consider his equality with God something to hang on to but emptied himself and became nothing, taking on the nature of a servant" (Phil 2:6).

While we can't change who we are, we can change what we do, what we say and even what we think.  Husbands can modify their habits for their wives, moms can change their sleeping schedules for their children, smokers can step outside to light up - we can and should change our stripes at times.  By the way, a chamelion doesn't stop being a chamelion when it changes color to engage it's environment, it uses it's ability to nagivate a changing environment.

For the sake of others, Jesus calls us to be Christian Chamelions, willingly modifying what we choose to do our how we present oursleves, not to deceive or manipulate others but to serve and save just as our Lord did to serve and save us.  Jus' Sayn.