Reshaped: An Introduction

What does Reshaped mean?

The Bible talks a lot about the change which takes place in a person's life and being once they receive the love of Christ. This is not a simple change or a minor improvement, like painting a racing stripe down the side of your car. Instead, as C.S. Lewis says:

It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better, but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game.
There has been more than a simple redemption here. The old creation has passed away and everything is new. (2 Corinthians 5:17) This is a central part of my beliefs: that man can be reborn, reshaped, and live his life in a fundamentally different way from common wisdom and popular opinion.

The word reshaped also refers to the way in which I have chosen to share those beliefs. Some people paint, some stand on street corners and shout, some construct complex logical arguments. I write. I try to take the components of my faith and life and see them in a new way, to see them reshaped. The result is a mountain full of strange and wonderful creatures with more significance than it might seem.

Why fairy tales?

There's really no single answer to this. I could say that it's because I enjoy fairy tales, and that would be true.

I also think, however, that it's important for faith to be accessible and relevant to people of all ages. Young children aren't ready for complicated argumentation and detailed exegesis of the Scriptures. But it's never too early to begin introducing the Truth to them; it's simply a matter of playing to your audience. Children's stories allow us to encapsulate rich concepts of faith in a way that is both memorable and entertaining. After writing the story, I can also use it as a springboard to discuss "the rest of the story", the ideas and beliefs behind the tale.

In addition, fairy tales have one element in particular which attracts me: they accept and perpetuate the human sense of wonder. Somewhere as we grow up, we lose the ability to simply be in awe of the amazing, replacing it with a cold cynicism. That's unfortunate, because that ability was designed by God to help us relate to and worship Him. When we sacrifice it in favor of a purely objective existence, we sacrifice to a very large degree the capacity to worship. Fairy tales help us maintain that capacity by reminding us how it feels to simply sit back and enjoy an unexplained mystery.

Who are you?

I'm a college student at the University of Mississippi, triple-majoring in Linguistics, Psychology and Mandarin Chinese. As of this writing, I'm entering the second half of my sophomore year at the university's Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Eventually, I plan to attend seminary and enter the ministry -- I have a particular passion for youth ministry, but I'm not limiting my options right now. I'm gradually changing, and it's likely that by the time I graduate, I'll have been significantly reshaped.