Pop quiz time – can you tell me what production these lines come from?
“Say that she rail, why then I’ll tell her plain
She sings as sweetly as a nightingale:
Say that she frown, I’ll say she looks as clear
As morning roses newly washed with dew:
Say she be mute and will not speak a word,
Then I’ll commend her volubility,
And say she uttereth piercing eloquence:
If she do bid me pack, I’ll give her thanks,
As though she bid me stay by her a week:
If she deny to wed, I’ll crave the day
When I shall ask the banns and when be married.”
At this point, you may have guessed Shakespeare, but which play is it? How about this line?
“I see a woman may be made a fool
If she had not a spirit to resist.”
Or the most famous line of all. Embroidered on a thousand pillows, printed on a million feminine coffee mugs, and screen print upon hordes of tshirts:
“If I be waspish, best beware my sting.”
All of these lines come from one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, and also one of his most enduring – the Taming of the Shrew.
I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.
This is the fifth in a ten-part series on learning to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our soul. The soul is that part of you that is eternal. After death, after life, all you will be left with is your soul to carry on into eternity. If you don’t learn to love with all your soul, you won’t have any love left when life is over.
The Taming of the Shrew could aptly be renamed, the taming of the soul because that is what it is about. A woman, Kate, with biting wit, fiery spirit, and unwinnable affection is pursued by a man who attempts to tame his un-tameable bride. Kate is complicated, dangerous, and in short… shrewish. And that begs the question… what is a shrew?
In North America, we rarely see shrews. They do exist here, but aren’t often seen… but in William Shakespeare’s world, late 16th century England, the shrew was prevalent and small, but mighty beasts.
Shrews are the smallest mammals in the world. There are several types of them – the common shrew, the short-nosed shrew, the water shrew (also known as the Cheetah of the Wetlands!), and the tiniest of them all, the Etruscan shrew. Shrews are insectivores, they eat bugs. Grasshoppers, crickets, worms, and the occasional ant… and most of them are no larger than your thumb. They remind me of tiny ferrets as they slink through the fields and grasslands in search of prey. Lightning quick and armed with tiny sharp spike-like teeth, they are like velociraptors to the insect world. If you were a locust, a shrew is your worst nightmare. A bit similar in appearance to field mice at a quick glance, they can be mistaken for rodents… but shrews are no mice. They are quicker, more aggressive, and always on the hunt because shrews are metabolic royalty.
Shrews, are always ALWAYS hungry. The average shrew eats like a hummingbird, constantly, and in great volumes. Shrews will eat two to three times their own body weight a day. If a shrew goes without food for more than a few hours, it can starve to death. This near-constant need to feed drives their aggressive behavior and influences their position in the ecosystem. It compels them to be active both day and night, searching almost continuously for food. There high energy requirement supports their active lifestyle but also makes them vulnerable to starvation if they cannot find enough food. In short, a shrew cannot be tamed because a shrew is always IN NEED.
Remember how I said Taming of the Shrew could easily have been titled ‘Taming of the Soul’. Here is why – your soul is the most shrewish part of you. Your soul is ALWAYS needy.
Throughout Scripture, the soul is described as an insatiable thing. You can fill your stomach until you push the plate away. You can sleep enough so you become, ironically, tired of sleeping, and your mind can reach information overload so that you have had enough learning for the day, your brain is burnt out… even our social interactions can reach a point where are completely satiated – no more people-ing for me today, thank you… but the soul never stops hungering and thirsting.
We are ever-needy things, us humans, and it a uniquely human trait not seen in the animal kingdom. Watch a lion upon a rock or a dog by the hearth and you can instantly see they know how to be content. Animals are instinctual by nature, Peter refers to the beasts of the field as “creatures of instinct”. They pursue only what is right in front of them, and no more. Their instincts drive them until the moment or the craving is gone.
Yet, we do the opposite – we can never have enough time, or wisdom, or beauty, or love, or freedom, or power, or joy, or laughter. We are insatiable in our souls. We are the untamed shrews of this world because down here, our souls cry out, “We need more!”.
Our souls infinite ability to need is mirrored only by God’s infinite capacity to give. Nothing in this world can satisfy our souls, only the creator of this world can tame our hunger for Him.
And when it comes to the Bible – that is exactly what we read. Consider the following passages:
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psa 42:2 ESV)
I stretch out my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land. Selah (Psa 143:6 ESV)
My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. (Isa 26:9 ESV)
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water… My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. (Psa 63:1,8 ESV)
Each of these passages paint the same picture – God is the only one who can satiate the soul. Nothing else satisfies, but it doesn’t stop us from trying. Do you know what the Bible calls an attempt to satisfy your soul with something other than God? Idolatry.
When, in the moment, I place something on a pedestal higher than God it is idolatry. When I try and fulfill a desire meant only to be fulfilled by God, I have done just that. Our needy souls can only be filled by Him, but we often attempt to fill them with other things.
I suspect that if you are listening to this podcast, you wouldn’t consider yourself an idolater. Idolatry seems to be an idea we relegate to the Old Testament and a world where idols were carved in stone and wood, but the New Testament warns us that idolatry happens anytime our soul takes things God has given us and turns those things into replacements for Him.
I want you to pause for a minute and assess yourself. How would you answer these questions?
1. Do I have a constant preoccupation with money or find myself fantasizing over a list of things that, if bought, would make me truly happy?
2. If I were asked by others what was most important to me, do I suspect they wouldn’t say God or even people, but instead my job, my hobbies, or something else?
3. Does my mood depend on my online interactions?
4. If a doctor told me I had to give up a certain food, device, or habit or risk major health issues, would I be able to do it, or would I likely avoid telling others to avoid accountability?
5. Do I find it easy to be generous or hard to share even when I clearly have enough to do so?
6. Do I spend more time, money, or effort on my appearance than on developing my spiritual life or helping others?
7. Do I ever find that my pursuit of pleasure or entertainment leads me to make unethical decisions or moral compromises in order to not “spoil the fun”?
8. Do I often begin to make decisions based on what will bring me praise or recognition before remembering to consider what is right and ethical?
So… how did you do? For me, I found myself to be a bit of a mixed assortment. I feel really good about some of my answers, but others are humiliating to think about. I don’t like to think of myself as an idolater, but idolatry seems to regularly be beckoning to my needy soul offering to fill it.
But this won’t work. The soul needs spiritual food and that can only come from the Father. There is no number of YouTube videos, sunsets, public praise, career advancement, material possessions, entertainment, or relationships with others that can fill the void left by not seeking God.
And that is exactly what the Scriptures teach in one of the most unlikely of places – the Book of Lamentations.
If you are unfamiliar with Lamentations, it is a collection of five poems or laments written by the prophet Jeremiah. The poems vividly describe the siege and destruction of the city of Jerusalem. Pictures of famine, death, pain, distress, and desolation are interwoven throughout the poems of grief. Despite the overwhelming sorrow, the poems are hopeful, even downright optimistic at times. Why? Because Jeremiah’s inner world, his soul, is satisfied by God even as his outer world is on fire.
Consider the words of Lamentations 3:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him." The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. (Lam 3:22-25 ESV)
Did you catch the soul craving of Jeremiah in that passage? God is his portion – that is feasting language. Jeremiah has chosen to feed his infinitely hungry soul with the love of the LORD which “never ceases” and is “new every morning”. Infinite hunger, infinite food.
So, what must I do to tame the shrewish metabolism of my soul? After all, a hungry soul is a constant problem and just as the pangs don’t seem to go away, Satan will continue to serve up rich delicacies and devilish distractions to entice you away from making God your portion. It is like our souls are ever thirsty and we are surrounded by shimmering saltwater always tempting us into drinking it to our doom.
Paradoxically, we tame the shrew’s cravings by becoming ‘shrewd’. Shrewd people have good judgment and they see what other, less eagle-eyed folks don’t. A shrewd businessman knows the value of his time and his dollar and refuses to be swindled by a bad bargain or cheap sales tactics. A shrewd lawyer knows the law and figures out how to win the case, despite the odds. A shrewd mother sees through her children’s typical kid manipulation techniques so that they have their deeper needs met, not just their tantrum wants.
Shrewd people see what they need, and they won’t accept anything less. I need you to start having a shrewd soul, and I want you to talk to your soul about it. When confronted with a typical idolatrous temptation. Pause, reflect, and then tell yourself - “Soul, this won’t satisfy you.”
Start talking to your soul like it is a person… because it is. The Bible is full of soul talk. In Luke 12:19, Jesus tells a parable of a man that had a great crop that year and it yielded so much harvest that he needed to figure out what to do with the surplus and when trying to figure out what to do with the blessing, what does the man do? He talks to his soul:
And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry."' (Luke 12:18-19)
In this parable, the man speaks lies to his soul. He tries to feed his soul with retirement plans instead of God. Do the opposite. Be shrewd.
When temptation strikes or you soul craves for more, do what David does in Psalm 42 – talk to your soul.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. (Psalm 42:5-6 ESV)
And what about when this world is good and it seems like everything positive and wonderful is prospering. How do you protect your soul from craving the world when your outer world is really, really good? Do what David does in Psalm 103:
Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. (Psa 103:1-5)
Tell your soul that now is time to be grateful and to praise. Tell your soul what to do – boss it around. After all, as Deuteronomy 4:9 says, “keep your soul diligently”. You are your soul’s keeper. It’s your job to tame the shrew, and even though that seems impossible somedays, but with God all things are possible.
Learn to love better. Learn to tame your soul and feed its eternal cravings. When we seek to have God fill our souls, we love Him better.
If you've listened this far, hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better. Would you mind returning the favor and helping us by subscribing to the podcast through your favorite platform?
By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you help us reach more people. Also, if you want more information about the work I'm doing at Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org or my personal Bible site, Biblegrad.com, where you can sign up for daily Bible devotionals called Biblebites and receive them in your email each morning, take online Bible classes, or find videos that will help you study through the Bible throughout the year.
And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”
