Our Lives Before... and After

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went with a group of Young Adults from our church on a mission trip to Tuscaloosa, AL. April 25-28th, a storm system, producing more than 330 tornadoes, ripped through the Southern states leaving broad swaths of once hilly, tree- or house-covered land completely flatten and bare. Amazingly, there were so many areas where one building would be completely unrecognizable, yet the building across the street appeared relatively unfazed. In one evening so many lives were changed forever. Many of the people we met, and worked with, lived miles from where the tornadoes hit. So many times we heard these volunteers say, "we often talk about our lives as before the tornadoes hit and after." J was a laid off employee, now she spends 5 days a week practically from sun up to sun down, repairing damaged homes and roofs and working with volunteer teams. M was a school teacher and spends her days coordinating an entire ministry. C was a stay at home mom and is now the "interior decorator" of the group- making sure paint colors and furnishings match so that people don't just have a hodge podge collection of donated stuff, but actually have a place that "feels" like home. There were many other people, with many similar stories.

As I've been thinking about on the trip, that phrase, said almost jokingly by these people, has continued to stick with me. Their lives, their purposes, their goals are radically different than they were 3 months ago. How they think, how they spend their time, their money, their resources stands in stark contrast to what they did before April 27th.

I wonder how often we, as Christians, view our lives that same way. The life I had before Christ and the life I have after. Is it different? Can we talk about our lives in the same way- with the same dramatic changes to our goals, our purpose? Do we spend our time, our money, our resources differently than we did before we came to believe in Jesus? Are we different people from the inside out? Would other people notice a difference in us if they knew us before and know us now?

Can we say, "we often talk about our lives as before Christ changed me and after"?