miracles in the inmost parts

the most significant miracles you do in my life, God, occur in the depths, in the secret and hidden places where You have so rearranged me that i am brand new. You have re-laid my very foundations. and to a watching world, I may seem at first the same. it is not until we get down to the core, tracing the pathways of my life to its root causes, that the mark of Your Spirit on me can be seen. it is in the secret places that one might begin to see that all my lifestyle choices, my language, my laughter are authentic expressions of a new self, not just the striving to do/be some idealized self. it's my true nature; it is not posing. and that is the greatest miracle of all: that when i took You at your word, saying, "i believe you, God, when You say my life has been exchanged for Christ and I am an entirely new creation," then i let go of control and You undid me. i don't know how to bear testimony to this healing and redemption; it is often too deep, too subtle, too personal to portray to others. but i want to brag, God, about the miracle that You've made of my heart and mind. You knock my socks off.

the power to transform our motivation is one of the most exciting dimensions of the Christian experience and has always been one of the greatest, sparkling proofs of the gospel.
--Pete Greig, The Vision & The Vow, pg 150

also among those to whose inner life i am allowed close enough proximity, i see that You are working these miracles in their inmost parts as well. something breaks loose in her and her countenance changes. something clicks for him and his posture is new. with the precision of a master craftsman You prune and tweak and fill in and cover over, working from the core outward, with patience and dedication. because You don't just want us to conform to an image, You want us to become the likeness of that image. and i think that's really beautiful, and generous, and... miraculous.

you don't have to go this deep with us. but, as with the three hebrews thrown into a fiery furnace because they declared allegience to You, You also deliver us through it with not so much as a whiff of smoke clinging to their unburned clothing. You are not content for Your kids to be the walking wounded. this mercy astounds me.