“Dr. G, how are you?” Glancing at the caller ID I saw the name of a former student that I had lost contact with for several years. He needed some direction for his life and told me, “I feel stuck. I can’t go back and can’t seem to go forward. I feel like I am in a cocoon.” I’ve never heard anyone use the term cocoon for what some call a dry place, a wilderness experience, in a rut, etc. The Holy Spirit began dropping thoughts in my mind.
I remembered Romans 12:2 , And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. The word transformed is the word from which comes the English word metamorphoses the process of a caterpillar weaving a cocoon around itself and in 28 to 38 days emerging a butterfly. The New Testament writers used this word four times all with the idea of transforming into something different. For several days, I’ve pondered the term in light of the Bible seeing many characters who probably felt they were also in a cocoon—Paul in prison, Elijah at the drying brook, or Jonah in the fish. Joseph, as slave and prisoner in Egypt, provides the clearest example being in the Lord’s cocoon. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, He himself was laid in irons; Until the time that his word came to pass, The word of the LORD tested him (Psa 105:17-19). The Hebrew word tested literally means ‘refined’ as gold and silver, which is the method of removing impurities. Joseph couldn’t go back and every effort to move forward seemed to fail. He probably felt hopeless and stuck, not yet understanding the Lord was transforming him for His purpose.
The process of metamorphoses or transforming begins with a caterpillar weaving a cocoon or chrysalis tightly around itself. There it dies and dissolves into a gooey soup. The remaining cells contain the pattern of what it is to become and begins merging and growing until a body is formed and squeezes itself though a tiny hole in the cocoon completing the process of transformation into a beautiful butterfly.
I shared with my friend I was sorry for all the pain he had endured over the past years, but I was encouraged where he was spiritually. Inside God’s cocoon, it is often dark, lonely, we can become fearful that God has abandoned us and even be angry with Him. I’m sure Joseph went through all these emotions, but God had placed him in His cocoon. The first step in his transformation was dying to himself and his past. Joseph had to die to his language, his freedom, and his customs such as food and clothing. He had to die to the relationship with his father and his brother Benjamin. He had to die to the fact no one was around him to tell him the stories of Abraham and Isaac and the greatness of Yahweh. After eleven years, Joseph received a glimmer of hope of getting out of prison after he interpreted a dream for Pharaoh’s cupbearer who had been put into the same prison. When Pharaoh restored the cupbearer, Joseph pleaded with him to mention his plight to Pharaoh so he might gain his release. But he did not remember Joseph, but forgot him (Gen 40:23). The Lord’s transformation process needed two more years. Then Joseph was complete, he emerged, and Pharaoh appointed him the Prime Minister of the entire nation.
It seems at times God has placed us on the shelf and we wonder if our ministry is over. Yet, He has wrapped us in a cocoon for a time in order to transform us for another stage. Robert Clinton in his classic book on leadership, The Making of a Leader, outlines five phases of the development of a leader during his lifetime. In Phase 4 that he calls Life Maturing Process, he writes that God often puts a leader in isolation “in which a leader is separated from normal involvement”. Here believers learn complete dependence upon God and has time to reflect on their spiritual development. He writes it is a ‘being’ stage and not a knowing or doing stage. It is a time when God matures us and readies us for the next phase of His plan.
A caterpillar will crawl only a short distance in its lifetime confined to a limb, a leave, or the ground. After the transformation, the butterfly travels thousands of miles. People look at a caterpillar and most often say, “Yuck, keep it away”. People see a butterfly and say, “O how beautiful”. Joseph had a dream as a teenager that he would lead his family. He fell far short in his interpretation. Paul writes that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us (Eph 3:20 NIV). Joseph could not have imagined what God would do after he became God’s butterfly—he would lead a nation. But first, he would have to be like a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies before bearing much fruit (John 12:24). Too many give up, quit, or retire before emerging out of this phase and never transform into the beautiful butterfly God intends you to be.
Sustaining Word for the Week: God’s not through with you yet. He transforming you for the next phase of your life.