With New Year’s resolutions in full force, you may have noticed an uptick of before-and-after pictures flooding your newsfeeds. These dramatic transformations encompass everything from weight loss to home makeovers, the pictures broadcasting all we can attain: smaller bodies; higher energy; bigger muscles; more beauty, organization, or peace.
While nothing is wrong with celebrating progress, these juxtaposed images can influence us in subtle ways. A steady diet of before-and-after pictures can slowly skew our expectations and perspective on reality. They whisper lies that can trickle down even into our spiritual lives.
Here are four lies to watch out for as we scroll.
Lie #1: We should expect and prize dramatic results.
Before-and-after images thrive on shock and awe, whether it’s body changes or a refurbished desk. Yet dramatic change doesn’t represent the majority of day-to-day life. Most of the change in our lives comes slowly, and this is especially true for our spiritual lives. God routinely compares our growth in him to the practice of farming—a slow and patient toil. He beckons us to wait on him and not grow weary while waiting for the harvest (Gal. 6:9; Ps. 27:14). This hardly sounds like a life of dramatic reveals.
God routinely compares our growth in him to the practice of farming—a slow and patient toil.
Yet it’s easy to assume our battles with sin should be won quickly. We hope the Bible verse we read on Monday will cure our anger by Wednesday, but the Spirit works differently. He slowly changes us from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor. 3:18). Prioritizing shocking changes steals our opportunities to see the active grace of the Lord in our lives and may cause us to minimize the importance of small steps of growth.
Lie #2: We are the main force of change.
Images are influential. We glance at the before-and-after pictures and the lesson is clear: my effort will bring me from picture A to picture B. But this bootstrap mentality falls short when we carry it into our Christian lives. While the culture around us prizes personal action, God reminds us he is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2). We excel in good works because “God is able to make all grace abound” to his children (2 Cor. 9:8). We’re only able to work out our salvation because the Lord is working in our hearts to will and to work (Phil. 2:12–13).
We may rightly create goals, reading plans, and mission statements for the year, but we must remember that when December comes, every single bit of growth was accomplished through the power of the Spirit who enables us.
Lie #3: Easy formulas provide results.
As each makeover passes our eyes, we’re tempted to believe the same process will work for us. We print out the cleaning routine, add organizational products to our shopping cart, and wait for the promised idyllic home. Yet the images don’t tell the whole story. Did the redecorated room alone truly bring organization, or was it accompanied by decluttering and an overhaul in habits and mindset?
Unfortunately, we often sidestep the details in favor of tidy formulas in our Christian lives. But God isn’t a guru offering three-step guides to health and happiness. The wisdom literature of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes routinely demonstrates that life doesn’t always work out in tidy ways. Sickness may continue even as we seek after the Lord; children we’ve brought up in the faith may turn away. The righteous often face hardship, while the wicked seem to flourish (Eccl. 7:15).
The unpredictability of life forces us to ditch the formulas and cling closer to our Lord. It pushes us to stop viewing our Bibles as a handbook and instead as the means to know our covenant-keeping Father, who loves and shepherds his people through each mountaintop and valley. Jesus is so much better than any formula. He knows the truths and help we need today might be different than the saint sitting next to us in the pew. God doesn’t deal in rigid formulas—he actively guides us by his Spirit each and every day.
Lie #4: Our ‘after’ will look better.
Perhaps the greatest lie before-and-after pictures preach is that our “after” should always look better. Tighter muscles, fewer wrinkles, and growing beauty represent progress in our culture. Yet Christians follow a Savior who walked toward suffering rather than beautification. Christ emptied himself to the point of death (Phil. 2:7–10).
God doesn’t deal in rigid formulas—he actively guides us by his Spirit each and every day.
We follow in the same manner. As we pour out our lives serving our children, friends, church, and community, our bodies will be broken. Our frames will grow weaker from the weight of burdens shared with other saints. The wrinkles on our faces will tell the story of toil, tears, and even joy in a lifetime of following Christ. Though God inwardly renews us as we grow in him, our outer body will continue to waste away as it makes its journey back to dust (2 Cor. 4:16). Caring for our bodies is good, but we must remember that ultimately our “after” picture is one that displays a life poured out for another (2 Tim. 4:6).
As we swipe through our news feeds this year and absorb each shocking reveal, may we do so discerningly. The Christian’s before-and-after picture may not go viral on social media, but it’s the picture that most closely resembles our Savior.
The Gospel Coalition