Only One Conversation

I ponder the notion & power of "conversation."  I contemplate.
What is it?  How many are going on at any one time?  What are the conversations that shape me?

What conversation is in the world?  What is the conversation of the world?  Who's in it?  Am I?
What's it about?  How is it portrayed?  Perpetuated?  Promoted?  What's to gain from it?

Whose are the voices?  Are they constant?  Aren't there many, not just one?  Which conversations am I in?  To whose voices do I listen?  What do the conversations I am a part of produce... in me... in others?

I've noticed that, through all of the unnecessary or evil ones, there are so many good, or at least well-intentioned, ones.  There are just so many conversations, especially now with the advent of modern technology.  There's really no end to the number and types of conversations of which we can be apart.

Everyone seems to be very interested in them... that is, in their particular conversations of interest.  Many (even Christians) aren't even interested in you, unless you are in on the same conversations that they are.  Hmm... ...

They are all over though.  Billboards.  Commercials.  Books.  Movies.  Television.  Stores.  Magazines.  The internet.  Blogs.  Churches.  Schools.  Institutions of every sort.  News outlets.

The voices are many.  Many conversations, happening at all times.  Which ones would I do well to listen to?  To allow to occupy my time and brain space?  How many?  Which ones ought be allowed into my emotions?  Or my decision-making center?  ... How much room do I have?  When am I on overload?

I see news programs with a never-ending excess of voices.  They will never run out.  There is always a new expert on the horizon, whose voice I am supposed to value, and to whom I ought pay heed.  I look at them on the screen, and all I see is the infamous and incessant talking hand.  They are most often a clanging gong to my soul.  I find little tolerance for their many words.

The way I see it, there is only one conversation deserving of my attention.  Only one breathes life into me.  Only one breeds peace, even in the storm.  Only one infuses me with hope and power.  Only one frees me to love that which is unlovely.  Only one causes me to care.  Only one.

I recently heard somewhere, the bible verse stating not to be conformed to this world, but instead to be transformed by the renewing of my mind.  I contemplated the difference, and how it appears to be a choice.  Conformed, or transformed.  Which would I rather be?

To me, to be conformed to anything sounds rather unappealing, not to mention, restricting.  Even God, Himself, doesn't suggest being conformed, even to Him.  For it would seem to necessarily imply the concept of force or compulsion.

I think that conforming happens when we let the forces and pressures from without, press us into a particular template.  Whereas 'transforming' is something that occurs from within.  It actuates the miracle of change, from one thing to another.

Then I thought of how the world can not transform.  It simply has not power... only words... conversations.  It will, however, undoubtedly conform me to its mold, when given the opportunity.  For that is the purpose of its current ruler.  To conform.

Jesus offers a better way.  It's called transformation.  From the inside out.

His is my conversation of choice.  What is He saying to me... about everything?


- Free Spirit