People Never Change
June 23rd, 2007, by Hilko
Do people change? Do they better themselves, and do they overcome their deeply flawed nature? According to Miss Marple, they don’t. And Miss Marple knows these kinds of things. See, Miss Marple is the main character in a series of crime novels by Agatha Christie, and she’s the coolest elderly spinster ever. Seemingly harmless, gentle, and slightly clueless, she’s really a shrewd observer of human nature. She uses her innocent appearance and her powers of intuition and insight to solve all manners of crime in her quaint, seemingly peaceful town.
As much as I love Agatha Christie’s novels, I always hated the idea that people are predictable, flawed, and essentially incapable of changing to a significant degree. Could she be correct?
I think the issue is very important, particularly from a Christian perspective. In fact, I think Christianity stands or falls by reality of visible changes in people’s lives that result from their becoming, or being Christians.
It’s a dangerous question to ask, though. I briefly corresponded with someone who ‘lost’ his faith this way. After years of coaching people (including the now-famous band Evanescence, apparently), and also being pastor of an Evangelical church for years, he noticed that there was very little apparent change in the lives of his fellow Christians. On top of that, the flawed aspects of people became painfully apparent all around him, both in those he coached and in his fellow Christian leaders.
And so he gave up.
Once he saw this lack of lasting change, all else didn’t seem to matter anymore. His extensive knowledge on Christianity had no real, practical value, and soon his entire belief-system collapsed.
Through a number of events in my life, I came to ask the same question. I realized that Christianity did not make sense, that it gave me no solace, and that the differences between Christians and non-Christians were often hard to see. The only thing that really mattered in the end, it seemed, was that Christianity lived up to it’s claims and resulted in significantly changed lives.
And that’s a bit of a problem. You see, In my own life, and in the lives of those in my direct surroundings, I notice very little of this change. The changes I do see are tiny when compared to the examples from the bible. And how can I explain the statistics that show that Christians are no different in many areas where they really should be; promiscuity, abuse, greed…
So then why am I still a Christian?
I have seen people change in incredible ways, and occasionally still do. My parents experience the truth of Christianity’s ‘claims’ on a day-to-day basis, in ways difficult to rationalize or explain away. Sometimes it does work, it seems.
But why sometimes, and not always? Are we perhaps not doing enough to deserve change? But then what about the role of ‘grace’? Does God perhaps selectively choose when and where to ‘work’?
Until I find a satisfying answer, I want to focus on those great examples of ‘change’. They give me the strength to live with this strange internal conflict of being both a practicing, faithful Christian, as well as an almost-atheist, rational person. I spit on cognitive dissonance!