You know the version of a good week you have been praying for. The drummer stays. Nobody quits. Somebody else learns ProPresenter. Nothing extravagant. Just the week where this stops costing you what it costs you.

The verse right before this one promised that all things work together for good. This one defines the word. Conformed to the image of his Son. Symmorphos, from syn and morphe, the shape of the thing itself rather than a finish coat on the outside. Which is worse news and better news than the magnet version: Paul never promises the drummer comes back, and he never says the hard year was wasted. You have been checking whether the circumstances improved. He has been checking something else.

Anchored in Romans 8:29. Part of a verse-by-verse season through the interior-life chapter of the New Testament.