I heard recently that the late actor Henry Fonda dearly wished he could be more like the character of “Mr. Roberts” that he played in a movie of the same name. Strongly associated with that role, he deeply admired the character and said wistfully to a reporter; “I wish I could be like him but the truth is that I’m nothing like Mr. Roberts.”
Being such a fine actor, too bad he couldn’t just “act” like Mr. Roberts all the time but that doesn’t work, does it? Our words and actions reveal the real us. Matthew 12:35 say; “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” No matter how good an actor we are, we can’t pretend forever.
That doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t actually become the person we’d like to be. We need to be transformed. Ephesians 4:23-24 says; “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind … put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
What does that take? Play-acting won’t cut it but genuinely submitting our whole selves to Christ will start the process of transformation. It is a simple step but not an easy one. Those willing to try, however, will find something more substantial in the end than just wishing it was so.
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