Ryan's Ramblings

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

— Romans 12:2, NIV

All summer long I kept telling myself I’d get to that fence in the backyard. It’s rotted off at the ground, leaning just enough to be an eyesore, and one good wind away from collapse. Every time I looked out the window, I thought, “I’ll take care of it next weekend.” But weekends came and went. Now the leaves are falling, and the broken fence is still there—leaning, waiting, accusing.

That fence has company, too. Clean out the garage. Organize the files. Set up a will. The list of my falterings goes on and on. Maybe you’ve got your own list—good, practical, even necessary things that just never seem to get done.

It’s not always laziness. Often it’s that good intentions don’t include a plan.

When I taught elementary school, we used what is called backward planning. Whether it was long division or writing an essay, you don’t wing it and hope for the best. You start with the end in mind and work backward, step by step. The question isn’t, “What do I feel like doing now?” but, “Where do I need to land?”

Romans 12:2 shows us the way forward. Paul points to the destination—God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will. That’s the life we’re aiming for. But we don’t arrive there by accident; we grow into it through transformation. Only a mind renewed by the Spirit can see God’s will clearly.

Transformation doesn’t happen through more grit or another self-improvement kick. Our thinking and desires must be reshaped—not by self-help, but by the Spirit of Christ at work in us. The starting point is clear: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

We must step off the wide road of conformity and onto the narrow, life-giving way of Christ.

This is exactly how Jesus lived. He came with the end in mind. The cross wasn’t an interruption—it was the plan. “The Son of Man came to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45, NIV). You and I were His goal. Every teaching, every miracle, every step of His journey was backward-planned to Calvary.

If Jesus lived with that kind of purpose, can we do any less?

So what does that look like? How do we make our days line up with the life we say we want—with Jesus as our end goal? It begins in prayer—pausing before the day begins to look to Him and ask for help. That’s where transformation starts, as the Holy Spirit shapes our thoughts and guides us in even the smallest ways.

Each surrender becomes a step—tracing backward from the life we long for in Christ to the choices before us today.

Ironically, backward planning is the only way to move forward. When we start with Christ as the finish line, every moment becomes movement toward Him.

That fence is still out there, waiting. I’ll get to it eventually. But thankfully, God’s already at work on something deeper—in you and in me.

While we’re worrying about fences and falterings, He calls us to fix our eyes on Him. And as we do, bit by bit, He sets things right—helping us move our backward lives forward toward the end goal… 

Christ Himself.