Being

One of the things I pray for daily is that the Lord will cause me to be the disciple he has called me to be.  By that I don't mean to say that I ask him to cause me to do more stuff, more service.  While I certainly ask him to direct my words and my actions, those are separate requests from being.  The doing is the what of discipleship, being is the why.

I want to first be faithful and then faithfully carried out the work he has for me to accomplish, to embrace, prepare for and to keep the divine appointments God has for me daily.  To be righteous is not to do righteous stuff or refrain from unholy things.  Many people do righteous or holy things for unrighteous or unholy reasons.  I can think of a widely known televangelist who spent a great deal of air time calling out infidelity in others, giving cover to his personal adultery.

There have been many a faithful church goer who faithfully attend that church in order to expand their book of business.  Young men have been known to attend church regularly until they win the hand of a certain young lady and then suddenly feels called to fish and/or hunt every weekend, often saying, "I can worship God on the lake or in the wood just as easily as in a building."  Why, then was he in that building until  he won her hand?  Not for worship, that is obvious.

Churches are filled with hypocrites, people who say and do one thing but inwardly are something else entirely.  So often there is a great disconnect between what people do and who people are.  While being will always lead to doing, doing will rarely, if ever, change who or what one is.  For instance, one who is a fisherman at heart will find time and opportunity to fish.  On the other hand, someone who goes fishing in order to spend time with someone, make a sales pitch or make an impression, will not likely become a true fisherman.

Doing, by the way, is so much easier than being because doing lies on the surface and being drills deep into the soul.  Becoming is a lifelong process.  I am daily in the process of becoming a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ.  My pursuit is daily and it will last a lifetime.  Going to church is something I can do one week and not the other, I can study my Bible today and not pick it up for a month, I can do all kinds of disciple like things with little or no committment or effort.  But I cannot be a disciple without a constant and permanent change.

I don't have to pray to go to church, read my Bible or make a contribution, I can just do those things at will.  But to become, to be a disciple, a true follower of Jesus Christ, for that I must pray daily for God's hand in my life.  I can do but I cannot become unless he empowers me, unless he calls me, unless he changes me by His Spirit.  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day" (Jn 6:44).  Jus' Say'n.