Andy’s birthday was coming up and his wife, Amy, wanted to do something special. No shirts. No ties. No yard tools or golf clubs this year. She wanted something that he would remember forever.

Then she saw it--and ad in the newspaper. "Let us," it said, "capture the new you." And Amy was intrigued.

Of course, you might have guessed, the ad was for Glamour Shots. It was an ad for one of those portrait studios—like the one in the mall—where they take women, give them a new hairstyle, have a professional do their makeup, dress them in an evening gown or drape them in a feather boa and capture the moment on film. So complete is the treatment that it’s almost a new person that emerges. In fact, sometimes too new— at least for Andy. When he came home on his birthday and saw the portrait in the living room, his first questions was: "Honey, who’s that in the picture!" Oops!

Despite Andy’s response, the ad to which Amy responded has appeal. In fact, the idea of creating a "new you" is not limited to Glamour Shots. It is inherent in the appeals of cosmetic surgeons, self-help authors and infomercial gurus. All subtly—or not so subtly—play upon a desire within us to be new, different, better.

Of course, it is also the appeal of our faith as well. The Apostle Paul said that those who are "in Christ," that is, those who follow Jesus as Lord, are "a new creation." Jesus himself told Nicodemus that through faith in him we can be "born anew" or recreated. It’s a promise that we can become not just made-over on the outside, but made over from the inside out. It is the promise that we can become new, better, different.

The question is how? What does it take to get a faith makeover?

The Apostle Paul suggests steps followers of Christ can take.

The first step, he suggests, is that we let go of the past.

It is amazing how many people live lives captured by their past. Becky was 16-17 when she became pregnant with her first child. Shortly before the birth, she and the child’s father married. They went on to share life together, even welcoming two more daughters into the world. With a dozen years, they were at a place in life where the whole family was active in church and Becky had made a niche for herself in the local community theater. It would have appeared that her youthful indiscretion was long-forgotten. But it wasn’t—not by Becky. Privately she obsessed on that failure. She spent her life trying to "live down" this past, letting it dominate her emotions and actions.

And Becky’s not alone. For some it is past poverty—or the expectations upon them as people of wealth. For others its an infidelity on their part or a betrayal by another. For still others it might be the abuse they suffered or the anger they’ve nurtured. Whatever that past is, it dominates life. And while we can’t forget it, while we can’t wipe out the reality of its existence, the first step in a faith makeover is letting go of the past.

Paul had to do it. Paul’s history was not particularly shameful. There was a lot in his past that would have been considered noble. He was born into the Hebrew faith and practiced it faithfully. He was a Pharisee, a student of the Laws of Moses, a devout man in every way. Far from being ashamed of it, Paul could have been proud of his ethnic pedigree and religious resume.

But Paul’s makeover as a follower of Jesus meant letting go of that past. To become the new person he was called to be, he had to give up his old ways of relating to God. He could no longer let it determine what he would eat or with whom. He could no longer let it determine how he would worship or where God might be at work. Paul had to let go of the past to become the new person God was creating.

That is true for any follower of Jesus Christ. Because he as accepted us as we are—with all our strengths and weaknesses, with all our successes and failures—we can let go of the past, set it aside, refuse to let it determine our lives. And in the process take a huge step toward becoming new.

But letting go of the past is only one step in a makeover of faith. If we let go of the past, if it no longer determines our life, if it no longer sets the agenda for our lives, then we need to reorder our priorities. To use the language of Steven Covey, we have to make first things first. In our case, that is our faith.

When Paul came to follow Jesus Christ, he couldn’t just drop who he was and what he had done. He couldn’t simply wipe the slate clean and leave it at that. He had to rethink everything in the light of Christ. He had to decide what really mattered, what would serve as his purpose in life, what star would he follow. And what Paul determined was that there was nothing more important than "knowing Christ and the power of the resurrection. There was nothing more important than becoming like Christ, even suffering with him.

Paul reordered his priorities. His priority in life was to immerse himself in a loving and obedient relationship to Christ. Every word and deed would now be measured by whether it brought him closer to or further away from the life and example of Jesus.

Becoming a new person in Christ calls for a reordering of priorities.

He was a young law school graduate. He wasn’t tops in his class, but close enough to attract interest from a number of firms.
The most lucrative offer came from a large firm in the South and he flew down to interview. It went well. He impressed the partners. They impressed him. By the time he left, it was almost a done deal. But just before he left for the airport, one of the partners mentioned the name of the firms largest client.

"Isn’t that the company that operates most of the gambling casinos in the state?" he asked.

"Well, yes," he was told. "But it’s all legal and they pay very well."

Two years before, the young grad would have been happy with that response. But since coming to follow Christ, he’d reordered his priorities. Money didn’t matter as it once did. People mattered more.

"It’s legal, yes," he said. "But moral? I don’t think I could work for a firm that profits, even indirectly, from an industry that causes so much human suffering."

Needless to say, he wasn’t hired, but he didn’t care. His priority was knowing Christ, living a life that reflected love of God and neighbor, that placed faith first. And that is what he did.

Moving toward that "new you" may not mean a new job. But it will mean making Christ the priority in one’s life. Learning who he is, what he taught, how he lived will be at the center of our experience. Following his example of service and sacrifice will be as important as daily bread. Everything—one’s self, family, friends, time, work, leisure—everything will be viewed through the priority of faithfulness to Jesus Christ.

Even then, we may not yet become the new person we want to be. Letting go of the past and reordering our priorities are only partial steps toward a new you. There is another.

As a kid growing up in West Virginia, I attended revival-oriented churches. In such congregations the Christian faith is often presented in and out terms. When one accepts Jesus Christ as Lord, one’s past is forgiven, and one moves from the outside to the inside, from sinner to saint, from "lost" to "found." It is as if once someone decides to follow Jesus, the new Christian life comes automatically.

But what I saw were lots of people who were freed from their pasts and pledged to follow Jesus, but who soon returned to old habits, bad attitudes and unhealthy spiritualities. Rather than becoming a new person they often returned to the old one. What I have come to understand since is that while the confession of faith frees us from the past and sets us on the way toward that new life, we become new by pressing on toward the goal of life in Christ.

Paul understood this. Oh, he knew that we were saved by grace. But he also knew that to reach the fullness of life to which we are called requires persistence. He uses the language of a runner to make the point. Although he had let go of his past, reordered his priorities, Paul was always straining toward what was ahead. He was, like a marathoner, pressing on toward the prize, which is the fullness of life in Christ. Without persistence, Paul could not have endured the struggles he faced.

Gerald Sittset is a professor at a college in Spokane, Washington. Several years ago, his wife, mother and daughter were killed when their car was struck by that of a drunken driver. In his book A Grace Disguised, he talks about his pain and grief, his rage and sense of loss. As you might imagine, the most horrible time in his life.

Yet through it all, Sittset can speak of a deepening faith. He says his grief is both sweet and bitter. That when he wakes up in the morning his soul is sorrowful, yet joyful, eager for what awaits. "Never," he writes, "have I felt so broken, yet never have I been so whole."

How could he come to such a place? How could he become new in the midst of his struggle?

He persevered. He pressed on through it all toward the prize of life in Christ.

I wish that becoming new was as easy as putting on Tammy Fay Baker makeup and getting a Vidal Sassoon hairdo. It would be nice if all it took was a change of clothes. Unfortunately, that won’t do it.

A Christian makeover takes a willingness to let the past go, to reorder our priorities and to press on day to day. What it takes is faith, faith that through Christ we are forgiven, through Christ we are sustained, and through Christ the day will come when the work will be completed and we will indeed be new inside and out.