St. Cyrl, in his commentary on the Gospel of John, writes:

"After Christ had completed his mission on earth, it still remained necessary for us to become sharers in the divine nature of the Word. We had to give up our own life and be so transformed that we would begin to live an entirely new kind of life that would be pleasing to God."

Those words leap forward through the tunnel of time to speak things I need to hear, things that cause me to pause and reflect on where I am in life's journey and where I want to be today and tomorrow.
What does he mean by to give our own life? The intent is clear. We are top acting like we are navigators of our ships of life. Our job is to sail the boat straight and true. His is to set our course and guide our way through the shoals to the distant promised shores.

So what does this transformation look like? In my own life, I have seen a young woman widowed with two children turn toward God with an open heart and then to be able build a new life. She became empowered to raise up both children through daily sacrifice and a total gift of herself. Her devotion ensure we would have everything we needed both in terms of worldly possessions but also in abiding love that continues to this day. I have seen a man who had become an alcoholic finally give up the struggle to beat the unbeatable only to have compulsion to drink relieved on the very day he invited God back into his life and began to empty out those things that left no room in him for the Holy Spirit to enter and bring God’s loving face back into his sight. I have seen in the strength of an exhausted mother who could call upon the strength of the Holy Spirit through a simple three word prayer, “God, help me,” to be able get of bed yet one more to time pace the floor speaking in the loving speech of comfort as if her capacity were unlimited.

I have not yet been transformed because that would imply that the work of the Holy Spirit has been completed. It has not. I am being transformed and I am living a new life where forgiveness and reconciliation lie before me and a new way of living in which I will be granted the wisdom to recognize God’s will for me. It is in the process of transforming that I will find joy and peace.