"Love That Tames"

“Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.” (Romans 6:13-14, NLT)

“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT)

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10, NLT)

“But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.” (1 Peter 2:9, NLT)

Something changes in your soul when someone acknowledges you even though you don’t think you are worthy of acknowledgment. The idea that God would come for the most gnarly and mangled among us is incredible, but it’s true. God wants the throwaways, the people branded with condemnation for all to see, those who stubbornly keep running from the one who just wants a turn of the head.

The apostle Peter makes the shocking statement that God has adopted us into his family and made us into a royal priesthood—taking us from rags to riches, orphan to son or daughter, wild mustang to warhorse in the King’s army. Only when we acknowledge this radical love can the wild and reckless nature inside of us be crafted into an instrument in the hands of a master. This is the beginning of meekness: an acknowledgment of God’s goodness that leads us to surrender to an ultimate, loving authority. A perfect, trustworthy one.

If you’re like me, you may have experienced a church leader, pastor, or Christian who focused more on rules than on Jesus. You may think of God as being more concerned with behavior modification than heart transformation through love. It happens so often: Leaders, not knowing how to reconcile wildness with some of the unspoken rules of tidied-up church culture, try to move people toward a safe, streamlined version of following Jesus. As Christians, we are often more comfortable with rules and checked boxes than being someone so in love with Jesus that they would do anything for him or go anywhere he asked.

It’s human nature to want to change something that looks wild. The Pharisees saw Jesus’ ministry and were so offended by how radically outside the parameters of traditional Judaism he went to win hearts that they could think of nothing other than stopping his work, stopping the man they saw as too wild (Luke 11:53).

This tendency is in all of us. With the knowledge of God’s perfection, and with our deep understanding of the untamed parts of our souls, it seems to make sense that we would need to fix the wildness in us before a perfect God could see value in us. But our shortcomings are never the disqualifiers. In God’s economy, our weakness is made perfect in his strength. God never uses a humiliating training tactic when he tames you into who he made you to be. Instead, he draws you to him with the patient look of a loving trainer, inviting you into the safest relationship you’ll ever know.