Doing vs.Becoming

A few years ago, I spent 2 full days sorting and re-organizing my home office. In the process I took 4 boxes of excess supplies to Goodwill, 3 bags of books to the church and public libraries, and a large quantity of paper to the recycling bin. All of which has caused me to look around and once again ask myself a question that haunts me on a regular basis: “Why in the world do I have so much stuff?”

One answer to this question is that sometimes I think that owning a certain item will somehow cause me to become a certain person. Yet the great irony here is that I can own every organizer known to man yet not necessarily be an organized person.

And then it hits me:  I often make a similar error in how I approach my walk with God.

I grew up in the church, so I began learning early:  Show up for Sunday School, get a gold star. Bring your Bible, another star. Bring a friend – 2 stars! During my teenage years, the gold stars were replaced by spiritual growth checklists:

Read my Bible – check.

Spend time in prayer – check.

Memorize a verse – check.

Witness to someone about Jesus – whoops!

These are all good things; those gold stars and checkmarks helped lay a solid foundation that has remained to this day, and I am very thankful for the Sunday School teachers, youth leaders and others who invested in my life. The problem comes when I begin to equate that list with being a certain kind of person – the kind of person God likes. If I check off all the boxes, it’s been a good day and God is happy with me. Did I only get a couple of checks? Then I better memorize the entire book of Isaiah tomorrow because I have to make up for it!

But Jesus never said, “Come to me and you shall check off all your boxes.”  There is no verse that tells us about the blessing of the checklist. (I kind of wish there was, because I’m great at checklists!) What I find instead are verses like these:

Come to Me…and I will give you rest – Matthew 11:28

Abide in Me, and I in you. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing– John 15:4-5

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.  For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit – 2 Corinthians  3:18

And I realize that I am not called to complete a checklist each day; I am called to a Person. I am called to abide in Christ, to behold His glory, and to rest in Him. The Bible is essential as I abide through the means of God’s Word and prayer…but the goal is not to complete a task so that God will like me today. The goal is to live in His presence and enjoy Him forever. I want to be in His word, I want to spend time in prayer; but I want it to be so much more than just a box to check off. I want it to be about walking with Him, about abiding in Him. And then—as I abide and behold—I will also become the kind of person that bears fruit and glorifies God. And that is really what it’s all about.