Shaped by the Word
by: Robert Mulholland

THE NATURE OF SPIRITUAL FORMATION

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Christian spiritual formation is the process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others.

A Process

Spiritual formation is not an instantaneous experience, although there may well be instantaneous experiences at certain points along the journey. Spiritual formation is a lifelong process of growth into the image of Christ.

Spiritual formation is not an option.

Spiritual formation is the primal reality of human existence. Every event of life is an experience of spiritual formation. Every action taken, every response made, every dynamic of relationship, every thought held, every emotion allowed: These are the minuscule arenas where, bit by bit, infinitesimal piece by infinitesimal piece, we are shaped into some kind of being.

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Human life is, by its very nature, spiritual formation. The question is not whether to undertake spiritual formation. The question is what kind of spiritual formation are we already engaged in? Are we being increasingly conformed to the brokenness and disintegration of the world, or are we being increasingly conformed to the wholeness and integration of the image of Christ?

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The goal of being conformed, the goal of the work that God seeks to accomplish in our lives, is that we find out cleansing, healing, restoration, renewal, and transformation in an increasing likeness of our being and doing to that of Christ's being and doing. Paul affirms this succinctly in 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

For Others

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of genuine spiritual formation is accepting the fact that it is inseparable from our relationships with others.

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While we tend primarily to think of scripture as the Word of God, and unquestionably the action of the presence, power, and purpose of God in human existence is encountered most fully in scripture, scripture is but a distillation of the action of the Word of God, which is diffused through all of human life and activity.

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For example, take the topic of "spiritual reading." We tend to think of spiritual reading first of all as reading the scripture, and this is sound. But if you have some acquaintance with Christian literature, you know the writings of the great mothers and fathers of Christian spirituality can become sources for spiritual reading. Poems, novels, plays can also become spiritual reading, because all of these human vehicles can become channels for the action of God's presence, purpose, and power to penetrate our own lives. The secret is that spiritual reading has more to do with approach than with content. Even the scripture, if approached with no openness to encounter with God, may be dead and lifeless; whereas hungry, seeking hearts have been ushered into the presence, power, and purpose of God while meditating on some piece of secular literature.

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THE NATURE OF INFORMATIONAL READING

Here are some characteristics of informational reading.

First, informational reading seeks to cover as much as possible as quickly as possible so as to quickly separate the wheat from the chaff and get the data needed to do what must be done.

Second, informational reading is linear. We move from the first element to the second to the third and on to the end, thinking that reading is little more than the process of movement through the parts.

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Third informational reading seeks to master the text. We seek to grasp it, to get our minds around it. We bring it under our control. Having done this, we then seek to justify our control (interpretation) and defend it against any other controls (interpretations), so we can use the information to impose our agenda on the world.

The fourth characteristic of informational reading is that the text is an object "out there" for us to control and/or manipulate according to our own purposes, intentions, or desires.

Fifth, informational reading is analytical, critical, and judgmental. This is the outgrowth of standing back and running what we read through the filters of our own perceptions, our own desires, our own wants, our own needs.

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Sixth, informational reading is characterized by a problem-solving mentality, which feeds back to the functional mode of existence. We tend to read in order to find out something that will work for us, whether it is to read the instruction manual on a piece of equipment that isn't working the way it should or to read some spiritual instruction manual so we can make some changes in our spiritual life at points where it is not "working properly."

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THE NATURE OF FORMATIONAL READING

First, in contrast to reading for information, the object is not to cover as much as possible as quickly as possible; reading for formation avoids quantifying the amount of reading in any sort of way.

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Second, although informational reading is linear, trying to move quickly over the surface of the text, formational reading is in depth. You seek to allow the passage to open to you its deeper dimensions, its multiple layers of meaning.

Third, in informational reading, we seek to grasp the control, to master the text. I suspect you already see what the third point is in formational reading: It is to allow the text to master you.

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Fourth, instead of the text being an object we control and manipulate according to our own insight and purposes, the text becomes the subject of the reading relationship; we are the object that is shaped by the text.

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Fifth, instead of the analytical, critical judgmental approach of informational reading, formational reading requires a humble, detached, receptive, loving approach.

Sixth, a characteristic of informational reading is the problem-solving mentality. In contrast, a characteristic of formational reading is openness to mystery. Instead of the problem-solving mentality, instead of coming to what we read to find a solution for something else in our life, we come to be open to that mystery we call God.

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INFORMATIONAL-FORMATIONAL INTERPLAY AND BALANCE

You may have inferred from what I have said so far that the informational mode is of the "dark realm," which I do not mean to imply at all. I have overstressed the alternative to informational reading in order to highlight the contrast. A fruitful interplay exists between the informational and formational modes. We must have a certain level of information about the biblical passage, some sense of the meaning of the text in its original context, some sense of what God was saying to the intended readers before it can become formational.

Copyright ©2003 by Wade Hodges, All Rights Reserved