SOUPIFIED – Twice transformed into a Christ-consciousness

When God wanted to create a butterfly, He designed a caterpillar.

Let that sink in for a moment.

The full extent of God’s creative objective does not happen at birth, nor immediately after birth; it happens during the process of growth from infant into adulthood.  We do not despise the days of infancy, we value the age of discovery, creativity, and exploration.  However, we are never content to stay there.

There is something majestic in creation recreating its own, evolving within, and then, transforming into beauty.  In the cocoon, the caterpillar doesn’t simply grow a new pair of legs, a set of wings, and an exoskeleton. Recreating itself, the caterpillar uses its own enzymes to soupify itself.  It evolves by growing new eyes, then transforms by losing its leaf-eating mouth and replaces it with nectar-sucking proboscises.  It finally gains its mature reproductive organs so that the full benefit of metamorphosis may be achieved:  multiplication and reproduction.

This book seeks to explore the Christian process of transformation and how we change from infancy, being ‘regenerated’ born-again believers, into a ‘soupified’ mature Christ imitator.  It explores how we evolve from ‘caterpillar Christianity’ into a ‘butterfly belief-system’.

Transforming from mature disciples into a Christ-conscious community is God’s design for a reproducing faith.  Not sharing the Gospel in words only but filling every space we occupy with beauty and grace, reflecting Christ in His fullness.

As we grow and mature as Christians, we naturally go through stages of spiritual transformation. Many believers are content to remain ‘born again’ followers of Christ, sadly getting stuck there for life.  Some progress to the second phase of maturity by becoming disciples – not just believers but followers.  Mistakenly many see this as the ultimate objective and final stage of ‘followship’.  Few manage to advance to the third stage of spiritual adulthood by being completely transformed.   It is however only in the third and final transformation that we can grasp our full potential and apply a Christ consciousness to our Christian confession.  This happens less frequently because the cocoon of soupification is a non-voluntary place of pain, self-denial, and purification.

This book was birthed in Syria. 

We were attending meetings in Damascus where local and international leaders were gathered to pray for peace and unity.  The nation was trapped in a brutal eight-year war, with half the nation being uprooted and millions who had fled the country.

On the Wednesday morning, at 1:21 am, we were woken as our hotel shook and rattled from bombs and missiles exploding nearby.  We could see the rockets flying over the hotel and exploding in the city.  At this moment, two things touched our hearts deeply.

Firstly, we realized that the “one-night” trauma for us was an “eight-year” reality for those living in Syria. For many people in the West, Syria is a war and not a country.  More than 11 million people have been uprooted during eight years of war, more than half a million people killed, and more than half the population in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

Looking beyond the smoke and fire we also realized that God allowed a ‘cocoon of soupification’ in Syria to transform religious believers into spectacular and beautiful ‘butterflies’.  This brought a deep tension in our own hearts.  We were confronted with our own unsoupified egos.

The first response when you wake up in the middle of the night with a bomb shaking the building you reside in is: Will I survive?  Where will the next one fall?  How long will this continue?  Will we be safe?

Mostly selfish, but fully justifiable emotions.

One of our group members, however, shared a room with a pastor working in Syria.  The pastor’s immediate response at the falling of the bombs was praying that no lives would be lost, that the unsaved would not perish, and that his family would be safe.  Completely selfless emotions which reflected a true and authentic Christ-consciousness.

Being confronted with myself, I realized that this is a journey to be shared.  We need joint inspiration on this journey of the discontent – discontent to live an ordinary life in Christ Jesus.

The caterpillar instinctively pursues the process of losing its legs and gaining its wings.  It’s not something it does, it is who it is.  Being transformed is found in the being, not the doing.  Transformation is not what we do, it’s who we are.  It’s not about obtaining new truths, it’s becoming a new creature.

It is important to mention that this book is not written by an author who has finished the race, but a fellow traveler who is on a path of continually seeking transformation.  After more than 40 years of ministry, I count myself privileged to have witnessed the beauty of transformed lives by standing on the shoulders of many heroes of faith – those who were transformed into a Christlikeness through cocoons of pain, persecution, slander, and hardship.  My aspiration in life is to do justice to their cause by continuing their journey in my life and by completing my journey faithfully.

I must also confess that many writings in this book come from the pens of men and women who have insights into matters superior to mine.  A Pastor once advised me to “think yourself empty and then read yourself full.”  The content of this book fully represents this principle.  Where my own wisdom ended, I sought the council of others by reading, researching, and reflecting.  Where possible all the sources are included.

Lastly, my prayer as you read this book is that ‘you will see Jesus’.  When the Greeks went up to worship at the festival (John 12:20), they had this one request for Philip:  “Sir, that we would see Jesus.”

My sincere prayer as you read this book is “that you would see Jesus”, even when you might not agree with everything written.