Spoon Benders

This scene, from the movie, The Matrix, was short, as it was pivotal for it’s key protagonist. Neo, just had his mind flipped upside down and inside out with these words. Although this dialogue could be easily mistaken as some eastern philosophy mumbo-jumbo, the spiritual implications go deep and wide across multiple belief systems. Including Judeo-Christian. Humans are born into this world without control of our environment but with one immediate super-power, to split the air with a high pitched cry. We then spend most, if not all of our lives trying to put together some semblance of order and control as we seek to reduce risk and increase our ability to predict our daily, weekly, yearly outcomes for our lives. We are out to bend the spoon in order to recreate our respective worlds according to our needs and desires. Of course, this happens at all levels. Personal, corporate, institutional and yes national spoon-bending “is a thing”. But to their angst and surprise, every single empire that ruled the world eventually had their spoon bent around them. Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, in that order, as predicted by the Bible and as written by the hand of the prophet Daniel.

Now this...spoon bending, it’s not just a trick of the hands; it’s a work of the Spirit. And more often than not, it starts with breaking. Nebuchadnezzar built a shimmering empire, dipped in gold, only to end up crawling in and eating grass like a beast. Alexander the Great—unmatched and undefeated—was snuffed out by a fever. King Saul tried to rule without divine direction and collapsed under the weight of his own ego and human desires, on his sword. Even Saul of Tarsus, the fire-breathing persecutor, had to be bent—struck blind on the Damascus road before being remade into Paul: teacher, traveler, truth-teller, God’s penman of the majority of the New Testament. 

Transformation rarely comes easy, but it always comes with purpose. “How do I know it’s God doing the bending?”. You’ll know. Through prayer. Through the Word. Through that whisper in the storm. So lean in. Let Him do the shaping, forming, molding, bending. Yes, it might be messy. It might feel like chaos. But trust His Word—what He’s forming is nothing short of epic, magnificent, timeless.

— YorkAli Walters