David: A Transformation

Aaron Hensley 

Dr. Daniel Cryer

English 122

18 Sept. 2018

David:  A Transformation

David Foster is on a journey.  He heads for a destination he cannot reach by plane, train, or automobile; he cannot walk, run, or bike there.  The voyage he has been on his entire life is one of spiritual transformation, and he is adamant in his resolve to continue it.  He believes he can achieve what he has been seeking his entire life:  peace.

The community of spiritual transformation is vast.  But what is spiritual transformation?  Although David identifies with the Christian faith, there is no exact definition.  Bible.org states, “In the case of a Christian, not only are emotional and intellectual qualities involved in maturity, but spiritual qualities as well.”  Although David agrees, he believes spiritual transformation is primarily the result of the daily choices he makes.  For him, it is a process of becoming selfless and sharing his gifts with others.  Everyone he meets could possibly be in his community.  Regarding his potential community members, David notes, “In life I believe when we wake up every day we are going to make a decision: one, whether we let our flesh or selfish wants control us, or, we can think outside the box and become selfless and care about, you know, not only us. “  

            As part of a large family, being selfless and sharing was not something that came easy.  “I was the youngest out of eleven actually, and my parents didn’t want to always move us in the mornings because there would be so many things to do, so we actually would have church inside our house,” he recalls.  Consequently, having so many older siblings was a great contributor to his spiritual transformation because he was able to learn from their mistakes after they left home.  “It’s like what Proverbs 4:7 says about wisdom,” he mentions, referring to the book of Proverbs in the Bible:  “Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom.  And in all your getting, get understanding.”  His spirituality allowed him to view being part of such a large family as a way to gain life experience ahead of time. 

He found that continuing to learn how to make productive spiritual choices after he left home, however, became increasingly difficult.  Therefore, his happiness suffered.   “When we care about more than one thing it gives us a reason, it gives us a purpose and when your waking up selfishly,” David asserts, “it’s like you’re thinking you need things like validation, you’re constantly looking for vacations. . . those are all temporary peaces.”  When he was out his own, life was causing him to confuse wants and needs.  He provides an example of the confusion, “I was buying clothes that I didn’t need just so I could get compliments.” 

To pursue the lifestyle he wanted, he joined the Army right out of high school.  The self-awareness that spiritual transformation gives him became invaluable later in military life.  He states intently, “It always guided me, and I’ve always had a way back towards the spiritual side, cause it would be the only thing that would keep me away from depression while I was serving in the military.” 

             To his peers, David was an excellent soldier:  young, popular, fit, and energetic.  He seemed to have it all; however, out of the spotlight he was a different person.  Depression often crept into his life as he recounts, “I was a 21-year-old single soldier with really no direction in my life…It was like I was living a double life…Then, something inside me started looking for help. That something was spiritual transformation.”  He was up front, in the company he was in, when a new leader walked through the door, Sargent First Class Babineaux.   They started talking about day-to-day life when then the Sargent asked him if he had a church.   David said he switched from place to place.  “Then he asked me, no he told me ‘come to mine’,” he recalls.  He went, and still remembers, “The preacher ended with ‘let your spirit be your king, your mind your servant, and your flesh your slave.’ That one verse changed me.”  He pointed out it didn’t happen overnight: “It’s on ongoing process, I am a firm believer if you can make your spirit your king, you can change anything about your life.”

Getting through depression and learning selflessness have been the most rewarding experiences David has had with his on-going spiritual transformation.  “Revelation, Revelation, something being revealed to me,” he states intently, “the reasons why you go through adversities, the things that add to you knowing who you are, cause knowing who you are, is knowing what you’re not.”  His spiritual transformation allows him to find purpose when going through troubled times in his life.  He continues with, “When you’re going through things [troubled times] there’s a reason you’re going through it, and it makes you who you are at the end of the day.  When something is revealed to you, that’s the best part about it, is getting an understanding of the war in the mind. It’s the understanding.”

            His life is about the journey of spiritual transformation.  He wakes up every day and makes a decision to be better because “you gotta take responsibility and accountability for your decisions.”  When he meets others, he invites them into his community with his personal mantra: “It’s not what you do that makes you who you are, but it’s who you are, that makes you do what you do.”  So, does he believe a person can change who they are?  When asked, he smiled slightly and simply replied, “Yes, through spiritual transformation.”