“I’m converted, but I’m not converted that far.”

E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was a missionary in India. While there, he

established a Christian Ashram, a sort of spiritual community and retreat center. Jones recounted this story:

In the Ashram, we gave the servants, including the sweeper, a holiday one day each week, and we volunteered to do their jobs for them. The sweeper’s job included the cleaning of the latrines before the days of flush toilets. No one would touch that job but an outcaste [the lowest of the low in the Indian caste system], but we volunteered.

One day I said to a Brahmin [upper caste] convert who was hesitating to volunteer: ‘Brother, when are you going to volunteer?’ He shook his head slowly and said:
‘Brother Stanley, I’m converted, but I’m not converted that far.’

(‘Devotional Classics’, Richard J. Foster &
James Bryan Smith, ed., p. 303-

304)

Do I receive each day with expectancy as a gift from God?

Am I dying to self so I can enter more fully into the joy of God and live for others? Do I see every person I meet, every encounter, as a gift?

Do I live each day shaped by the knowledge that God’s kingdom has broken into the world and into my life; God’s kingdom of love, truth and joy; justice, freedom and peace? How converted am I in embodying that love, truth and joy; justice, freedom and peace?

How evident are the fruit of the Spirit in my day-to-day life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

In Lent, we engage more intently in this self-reflection and invite the Holy Spirit to continue working conversion in us. I’m converted. How converted am I?

Under the Mercy,