GodReflection: A Word We Can Count On—Formation.
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is Formed in you (Galatians 4:19).
As children of our King Jesus Formation should be among our primary objectives. Since we are tied to The Holy, Formation is also His primary objective for us. When God Formed our body and soul through the act of birth, the first breath that we inhaled activated a living soul.
Without even a hint of doubt we can be sure that God Formed each one of us and gave us personal identities with His Divine Purpose. The prophet Isaiah provides us with this insight. (He Formed), everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory (Isaiah 43:7).
Over and above all priorities for God is His Formation of each one of us. Holy Scripture describes a second Form.
This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who Formed it and established it—the Lord is his name. (Jeremiah 33:2)
We walk upon dirt Formed by Father God, Jesus Son, Holy Spirit. We worship The Holy who Formed celestial bodies, sky, rivers, plants, and all life that walks, flies, and swims.
There is yet a third Form described by The Holy. Once we sign on with Jesus, we discovered that our power to walk in his company comes from the Holy Spirit that lives within. He Forms in us our primary task while we live upon the face of the earth. That is for us to allow the Holy Spirit to see Christ Formed in us (Galatians 4:19).
That should cause each one of us to burst out with an exclamation of WOW!
Increasingly, each day we see our role is not to do but rather to submit. That means for this Baby Boomer, who is so adept at my creation of “To Do Lists”; submission is my only task so that Christ can Form in me. In every item on our to-do list, submission is our primary concern.
Just think of the implications. To the degree that we whittle away at our control gene, we begin to allow our submission to Form us into the heart of Jesus. He takes our submission gift and Formation is the result.
He Forms himself to occupy a greater space within us. From The Christ whose Formation in us increases we find that there results in us an increase of the flow of the living Jesus from us onto the trail of our walk as we reflect Jesus’s light to everyone who crosses our path.
There is at least one more powerful Formation. At the same time Jesus is Forming an increased presence in us, he is also Forming his body made up of those who follow The Way. Over the centuries, the word Church came to describe the Formation of his body.
The Apostle Paul seems to like the body analogy. He writes, So in Christ we, though many, Form one body, and each member belongs to all the others (Romans 12: 5) Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts Form one body, so it is with Christ For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to Form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink (1 Corinthians 12: 12-13).
The Holy generates Formation. It is Christ’s Church. Once again, we find our role in the process is to be submission. Each one of us functions along with others as a body member. However, the body is the Body of Jesus. He is the head. Our place isn’t to judge the claim of a fellow traveler who honors Jesus and claims membership in the body. We don’t Form the body. That is Jesus’s role. It is his church.
A Word We Can Count On this day is our realization that The Holy generates Formation and our response is nothing more than contrite submission.
If we were to be consistent in this one concept then more room for The Holy would result in our own walk, don’t you think?
Yes, Formation is A Word We Can Count On.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection: A Word We Can Count On—Formation.
