And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
/Romans12:2/
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I used to be a voracious reader in my youth. I loved spending time at the library and would devour books like they were sustenance. And I’d read almost everything. I liked to read because—outside of escaping and being taken on an adventure--- I was amazed at how these authors had such an amazing command of the English language; and I kept discovering that you could manipulate language, colour outside of the lines, and throw away the rules if it pleased you; although technically it was frowned upon.
When I read the book Blindness, by Jose Saramago, where there’s no punctuation, and the typical rules of grammar are utterly disregarded, I was both annoyed and amazed. Nevertheless, he told a powerful story in that book. As I reflect on this, I’m considering doing the same. Not with my writing, but with life.
Our lives with Christ do the same thing that Jose Saramago does with grammar in Blindness, to some degree. God calls us to throw away what we know, what we’ve been conditioned to believe, so that His power can be made manifest in our lives. God breaks the rules and rewrites the script. He turns tables, overturns tables, creates new tables, and leaves everyone in his presence utterly astonished.
This year I want to colour outside the lines, throw away the rules, change my language and the grammar rules associated with it. I’m not God, and I can’t see the future, but whatever great and mighty things that he chooses to reveal, whatever is outside of the rules, outside of the usual boundaries, I want to flow with it freely, unencumbered by anything.
I want something different, because sameness has become dreadfully banal to me.
How does one go about it? Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).
Transformation means that you become an utterly different person. According to Google, transform means a major change in form, nature, or function. You are no longer the same person, and you don’t function in the same manner as before. How you think, how you act; your nature is transfigured. There is a marked difference of the before and after, it’s like day and night. And what precipitates this transformation is, according to what I’m learning in Bible study, a renovation of the mind. Thoughts, beliefs, patterns need to be torn down, thrown out, and new ones according to the word of God instituted.
And if I desire to colour outside the lines, throw away the rules, change my language and to “prove” the good, and acceptable and perfect will of God, I must do it. And part of that transformation involves “forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead” (Phil3:13). I must force myself to forget. What lies ahead is of far greater value to me than what is in the past, because there is a prize to win for which I’ve been called. There is a prize for all of us that we must press on to acquire.
So, I’m going back to be more intentional with reading the word. As I discovered, through Jose Saramago’s Blindness, that the rules can be broken, and through God’s word I have discovered the same; and with it, one may divine the future, heal, be strengthened, be free, not only be full of hope, but be utterly equipped for days to come. It’s an interesting tight rope to walk. Nevertheless, it shall get done. I will press on toward the goal; I have determined in myself to see it through.
