Dallas Willard has said that the first move we make in the work of spiritual transformation is made by the mind. While the initial move is always made by the Spirit, the ball then is in our court. What is our vision? In particular what is our view of God and ourselves? If your view of God is less loving than that of the prodigal’s father? If so, this may cause a person to move away from the offer of Presence. If our view of ourselves is tinged by shame, we may feel unworthy to accept the offer of divine friendship.
Greg Spencer presents ideas that can help us awaken to the power of the words that drive our life stories and reframe our life picture. Reframing the Soul helps a person remember the past with gratitude and to look to the future with hope. In the author’s words: “My highest hope for this book is that readers (including myself) would see that living by faith includes living according to the words we’ve chosen to live within, and that we would replace the destructive words we use (about the past and future, or inner and outer worlds) with words that liberate us to live more fully by the gospel-frames Jesus desires for us.”
We have asked Westmont Professor, Gregory Spencer for permission to share ideas and images from his book Reframing the Soul: How Words Transform our Faith.