Miserere Mei

By the Rev. Tom Benz.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

(Romans 12:1-2, KJV)

A number of years ago, I had a dog named Chandler. She was solid black, a St. Bernard/Great Dane mix, and she was huge, tipping the scale at 120 pounds. Highly trained when I adopted her, she obeyed hand signals as well as voice commands. And she was gorgeous.

Though she was exquisitely domesticated and obedient to a fault, in her heart she longed to run. When Chandler ran, there could remain no doubt that God created her with that in mind. Eerily deer-like, she ran like a spring gale.

Occasionally, when confronted by an open door, Chandler threw off all of her training, ignored every command, bolted for the freedom of the outdoors, and ran with exuberance until she just couldn’t run any more. The desire was her genetic imprint, written by God in her chromosomes. No amount of training could completely eradicate her desire; it was simply who she was.

Just as Chandler’s master tried to domesticate her, many forces try to domesticate Christians—to conform them to this world. We are told to stay out of the political arena. We are legislated out of classrooms. We are marginalized in marketplaces and largely ignored when it comes to basic values in entertainment. We are instructed to be “tolerant” and we are chastised when we stand for the absolute truths that we know to be the bedrocks of our society. We are told to sit quietly and to be nice Christians.

Even Christians domesticate other Christians. We are told to sit in rows and we are told to be quiet. We are told to “submit to leadership” when thinking Christians clearly see the wrong motives and contradictions. We are given the unspoken message that, although we talk about the priesthood of all believers, the real ministry is handled by the clergy.

God help us not to be domesticated. Give us your word in power. Give us vision that over-rules the “rules” in our lives. Give us hearts of passion for you, and please cause us to fall madly in love with people … so that we must pro-actively act on that love.

God help us not to be domesticated. Cause the rivers of water to flow in our lives, no matter how it appears. Cause healing to flow from us, though it disrupts the “natural” processes of life. Cause us to follow the vision that you give in our hearts without regard for convention or normalcy.

God help us not to be domesticated. Make our hearts pure, without the poisons of sin, unforgiveness, or bitterness. Free us from pride and arrogance. Deliver us from the need to control others. Fill us with unquenchable thirst for you, your will, your power, and your nature in our lives. Set us on fire for your highest and best.

God help us not to be domesticated. Help us not to be lukewarm. Cause the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn within us without end. Burn the dross from our lives. Cause us to decrease that you might increase within us, until, in truth, it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.

May God give us the grace to not be conformed to this world, rather to be transformed into his likeness. May God give us courage to be the men and women of God that he purposed us to be, and may God give us strength to throw off the shackles of domestication. May God rise up within each of us to truly be his people—fully as he intended from the foundation of the world. May the Spirit of God explode within us until we are ONLY what we each are created to be.

The Rev. Tom Benz is Executive Director of Bridges of Faith International, a ministry to children and youth of the Ukraine.