The Word That Shapes Us - Transformed by the Untamed

Ten days ago you were a different person.

You don't know it yet. You don't feel it completely yet. But something irreversible has happened in the depths of your soul during this journey through the most sacred tension of human existence: the encounter between your will and the Will that created the universe.

Ten days ago you were reading the Bible. Today the Bible has read you.

Ten days ago you were trying to understand God's Word. Today you've discovered that God's Word was understanding you - penetrating layers of your soul you didn't even know existed, illuminating corners of your heart you had kept hidden even from yourself.

Ten days ago you wanted to tame the untamed text. Today you have been tamed by a Voice that refuses to be reduced to the dimensions of your comprehension.

And this - this total reversal of who shapes whom - is the apex of every authentic spirituality.

The invisible metamorphosis

There's a transformation that happens so slowly, so silently, that only in retrospect do you recognize its depth.

It's like watching a child grow. Day by day they seem identical. But then, suddenly, you turn around and realize the human being in front of you is no longer the same one you remembered.

So it is with the soul that submits to Scripture's authority instead of submitting Scripture to its own authority.

Day after day it seems nothing changes. You read. You reflect. You wrestle. You resist. You yield. You accept. And apparently you remain the same person, with the same thoughts, same habits, same relationships.

But then - suddenly - you look back and realize something fundamental has changed in the geography of your being.

You're no longer the person who decides what's acceptable about God. You've become the person who asks God what's acceptable about you.

You no longer seek a Bible that confirms your intuitions. You desire a Bible that corrects your illusions.

You no longer want a comprehensible God. You worship a God who transcends your understanding and precisely for this reason deserves your absolute trust.

The fire that doesn't destroy

In the book of Daniel there's a scene that should make your knees tremble at its terrifying beauty.

Three young Hebrews are thrown into a blazing furnace for refusing to worship the king's idol. The fire is so intense it kills the guards who throw them in.

But when the king looks into the furnace, he sees four figures instead of three. And the ropes that bound the prisoners are burned away, but their bodies are intact. Their hair isn't even singed. Their clothes don't even smell of smoke.

The fire burned only what imprisoned them.

This is the perfect image of what happens when you allow God's Word to remain untamed in your life.

The fire of his truth burns - yes, burns intensely. But it doesn't destroy you. It destroys only the chains that held you prisoner without you knowing it.

It burns your need to control God instead of being controlled by him. It burns your dependence on human approval instead of divine approval. It burns your fear of being inadequate instead of your confidence in Christ's adequacy.

It burns everything that must burn. But it preserves - indeed, reveals for the first time - everything you're truly called to be.

The architecture of the renewed soul

When you stop being the architect of your faith and allow God's Word to redesign the blueprints of your existence, you discover that God is an architect infinitely more creative than you had ever imagined.

He doesn't demolish your personality to build a spiritual clone. He reveals your authentic personality by removing the superstructures you had built to protect yourself, impress others, and maintain control.

He doesn't make you a copy of someone else. He frees you to become the truest, most courageous, most loving version of yourself.

He doesn't standardize you according to some preset religious model. He personalizes you according to the original design he had in mind when he dreamed you before the foundation of the world.

The paradox is extraordinary: the more you submit to God's authority, the more you become authentically yourself. The more you lose control of your life, the more you find the life that was truly yours. The more you die to yourself, the more you live the life worth living.

The dance between finite and infinite

There's a dance that only mature souls can perform: the dance between your limited humanity and God's infinitude.

It's not the dance of those trying to become God - that's pride masked as spirituality.

It's not the dance of those renouncing their humanity - that's gnosticism disguised as devotion.

It's the dance of those who fully embrace their condition as creatures and precisely for this reason experience the glory of being in relationship with the Creator.

It's the dance of those who accept not understanding everything and precisely for this reason trust completely.

It's the dance of those who confess their ignorance and precisely for this reason access a wisdom that transcends understanding.

In this dance, every step you take toward humility brings you closer to glory. Every movement toward dependence frees you into authentic independence. Every gesture of submission elevates you to the dignity for which you were created.

The silent witness

But the most powerful proof of this transformation isn't the words you speak or the emotions you feel.

It's the silent witness of your transformed life.

It's how you now face difficulties - no longer with the desperation of someone who must solve everything alone, but with the peace of someone who knows they're in the hands of Someone greater.

It's how you now see people - no longer with the judgment of someone who feels superior, but with the compassion of someone who recognizes their own fragility in others.

It's how you now read Scripture - no longer with the anxiety of having to defend every verse, but with the joy of someone who knows every word is a gift from the One who loves you enough not to leave you as you are.

It's how you now pray - no longer with the presumption of instructing God about what he should do, but with the trust of entrusting to him what you cannot understand or control.

The eternal invitation

And now, as this journey through the untamed text draws to a close, there's an invitation that resonates from the depths of eternity:

Live what you have discovered.

Don't return to the reassuring prison of interpretive control. Don't take up again the weapons of spiritual domestication. Don't fall back into the illusion that you are the final authority over what's acceptable about God.

Live in the terrifying and glorious freedom of being a creature loved by a Creator who is infinitely wiser, more just, more loving than your limited mind can ever comprehend.

Live in the courage of trusting him even when - especially when - his ways are higher than your ways and his thoughts higher than your thoughts.

Live in the peace of not having to be God, of not having to have all the answers, of not having to control the uncontrollable.

Live as someone who has been transformed by the untamed and who now carries into the world the beauty of a soul that has learned to dance with the infinite.

The final word

God's Word doesn't need your defense. You need its transformation.

Scripture doesn't need your approval. You need its authority.

The text doesn't need to be tamed. You need to be freed from the tyranny of having to tame everything you don't understand.

Today, at the end of this journey, at the threshold of a transformed life, at the door of a finally mature faith, there's only one question that matters:

Will you live as someone who has been transformed by the untamed? Will you carry into the world the beauty of a soul that has learned to trust God even when you don't understand him? Will you be a living witness to the fact that true freedom is found not in controlling God's Word, but in allowing God's Word to control you?

Because this - this life transformed by the loving but untamed authority of God - is the destination toward which every sincere soul is called to walk.

And the journey - the wonderful, terrifying, glorious journey - begins now.