Transformative Change: Honesty, Responsibility, Courage, Humility

From the introduction to Transformative Change: Honesty, Responsibility, Courage, Humility, by Michael Misja and JoAnn Shade

If you’re reading these words, perhaps it’s because something has kicked open the door for you and you’re ready to embrace change. It isn’t enough to appreciate change from afar, or only in the abstract, or as something that can happen to other people but not to you. We need to create change for ourselves, in a workable way, as part of our everyday lives.

Sharon Salzberg

In 1974, a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture invented a three-dimensional puzzle that captured the attention of the world. Not only has Erno Rubik's creation been phenomenally successful commercially, selling 350 million Rubik's Cubes, but it has also taught us a great many life lessons. In working on a book on transformative change, we found these three truths from the Rubik's Cube invaluable: Some things cannot be changed, you can never change just one thing, and you have to give up what you have to get what you want.

What is true about Rubik’s cubes, people in general and relationships in particular is also true about writing a book. Neither of us was too fond of group projects in elementary school, and so collaborating on a book brought its own challenges to us. What could we agree on? When could we agree to disagree? Could we somehow present a united message yet still maintain our own distinct voices?

The writing process itself confirmed again what we believe about change. It takes motivation, intentional effort, and the presence of the Spirit of God. It also verified the truths from the Rubik’s Cube, especially the understanding that you can never change just one thing. So it is with much gratitude for the grace of God that we are able to birth a book on the process of change.

When we first sat down to work on this project, we reflected on the lives of the hundreds of people we had worked with over our many years of ministry. As we talked about those who had made substantive changes in their lives, particularly in what might be seen as holistic ways, we asked ourselves, what made the difference for them? What did they do, what did they understand about change, and why was it different for them? Why did we see a transformation in them versus less significant change in other people?

Our conversations brought us over and over again to the concepts of honesty, personal responsibility, courage and humility. When people were committed to make the shift toward those four values/goals, and were accompanied in that work by the Spirit of God, they were able to move toward a spiritual and psychological transformation with lasting impact. Thus the framework of this book on transformative change in the life of a person who follows Christ.

These pages have had a long gestation period, and our own lives have experienced transitions that have put our thinking about transformative change to the test. We write from a place of recognition as to what can be, not a place where we’ve been able to live out these concepts perfectly in our own lives. Yet we also write from a place of practical experience in the roles of Christian psychologist and faith-based social service practitioner and pastor, having walked the road of transformative change with hundreds of people.

We’ve included some ways for you to interact with these materials at the end of each chapter in Shiftwork, questions and activities that will be helpful in putting the concepts of this book into action. Hopefully these will nudge you toward the question, “now what?” as you desire to move from deception to honesty, from shame and blame to personal responsibility, from fear to courage, and from pride to humility.

What we also know is that Salzberg’s words about embracing change that we began this introduction with are only part of the equation for those who follow Christ. We do need to create change for ourselves, but lasting, transformative change is always in the context of what Christ is doing in us. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians two thousand years ago, “And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him” (II Corinthians 3, MSG).

And so, with the light of truth, the acceptance of personal responsibility, the courage that comes from faith, and the humility of Christ, we breathe a prayer from the psalmist for ourselves and for you, our fellow-seeker of transformative change.

Send out your light and your truth,

let them lead me,

let them bring me to your holy hill

and to your dwelling.

Psalm 43:3

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