Friday 27th February - Transmogrification

DAILY BYTE

You are called to become the person God had in mind when he originally designed you.

This means you have to change.

This is not just a little change, a nip and tuck here and there, but a total transformation, a renovation from the ground up. And not just part of you has to change – it’s not just what you consider to be your ‘spiritual life’ that God wants to change, but absolutely everything. Yes, even those parts of you that make you blush when you think of them (perhaps especially those parts).

The Lenten journey is all about that change.

It is about that holy and mysterious renovation of being – a process where gradually every part of who we are begins to reflect more and more of God’s nature. And in so doing, we find we are slowly becoming who we were originally designed to be. This is what is behind Soren Kierkagaard’s wonderful words, ‘Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.’

The other day, I was sitting at my desk trying to find a fresh word to describe this change, when it hit me – what about ‘transmogrification’?!

I first came across the word ‘transmogrification’ in a Calvin & Hobbes cartoon and was immediately captivated by its definition: ‘to change into a different shape or form, especially one that is fantastic or bizarre.’ (From freedictionary.com).

This particular cartoon depicted Calvin with a ‘transmogrification machine’ (an old dusty box) that could transform him into any creature he could imagine, from scary, drooling monsters to a pint-sized tiger.

As I’ve thought about it, transmogrification seems an excellent word to describe the spiritual renovation Christ wants to bring about in our lives. We are transformed into something fantastic; something so contrasting to the world’s norms and standards that it can even be considered bizarre.

This is because God’s values are often at polar opposites with what society prizes. For example, if we follow after God in his way then material accomplishments no longer become the be all and end all of our efforts. Or what about how in God’s view, service of our fellow human beings indicates success much more than ruling over them does. Many people would view someone who considers ‘learning to humbly serve’ as a great life accomplishment to be quite bizarre!

Therefore, in the world’s eyes, when our lives begin to reflect more of God’s strange upside-down ways, it really seems as if we are ‘transmogrifying’.

So then, may God bless you with his special type of ‘bizarre-ness’. May he bless you this Lent with a complete ‘transmogrification’– an entire transformation from head to toe!

PRAYER

And now, dear Lord, with your help I shall become myself.

READING

Ephesians 4:22-24 (The Message)

Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.