Michael Phillips, in his thought-provoking book Bold Thinking Christianity writes in part:
Not only are we short-sighted, we are accomplishment, experience, and pleasure driven. Affluent western modernism has infected us with a false sense of what is good and worthwhile. These three elements bring that faulty imbalance into stark clarity.
What can I get done?
What do I want to experience?
How can I carve out more time for personal leisure and pleasure?These are the three pillars of twentieth and now now twenty-first century mankind’s frame of reference toward life—doing, experiencing, enjoying.
To these three I add a counterbalance: What am I becoming?
I think a lot about what I am becoming as a result of my moment-by-moment choices. (Including the choice of how I will use my mind!) We are all living thoughts of our heavenly Father in that he had something uniquely specific in mind when he created each of us. I want very much to grow up into a good son who reflects Father’s initiating thought when he brought me to life. My choices—all the big, little, and in-between ones—they all lead me either closer or farther away from the Divine idea. Sobering…
It has been my sense that the purpose of life is to learn how to love—God, and the “neighbor” he brings near. While this remains a goal of paramount importance, I have altered my thinking a bit to reframe the purpose statement thus: To become the unique son or daughter God had in mind when he created us as his child.
We do this by following as hard as we may on the heels of our Elder Brother and Lord, Jesus Christ, who shows us the Father and is the living way to the end we seek. Our “following hard” must take the form of doing what the Lord commands through the help of the Spirit. It is in this “becoming” that we learn how to love, to the point where love is no longer what we “do” but, like Father, it is what we have become.
Of course, I can’t imagine such an achievement in this mortal life of ours. But I don’t discount that it must be so somewhere in eternity…
~m
I really love this…I have been contemplating this exact thought of, what am I becoming, the last couple of weeks and I agree it is all very sobering. To become a child of God again and to relinquish all control back into His hands. Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Your words fill me with joy, Kimmi. How deeply God loves you! And what a wonderful thing it is to realize that we have the privilege of working with our Father to become all that he has in mind for us to become and that Jesus himself stands ever ready to help us to do just this! Sheila and I are eagerly looking forward to being with you and Ben. Only eight more days now! All our love to you both…
This is a profound statement from your post: “I think a lot about what I am becoming as a result of my moment-by-moment choices. (Including the choice of how I will use my mind!) We are all living thoughts of our heavenly Father in that he had something uniquely specific in mind when he created each of us. I want very much to grow up into a good son who reflects Father’s initiating thought when he brought me to life.”
The first step in becoming is desire – then choices. Our thought life is so important for it is here we are attacked with the negative and we must catch those undesireable thoughts and exchange them with God’s thoughts. There are times it is difficult to love and to forgive – but as we realize that Jesus is the Lover, and He is the ultimate forgiver – and He lives IN US – – we can love and forgive through Him. Great Post Michael.
I will be posting my sermon that my Pastor gave me permission to give last Sunday evening. Afterwards when I arrived home, my thoughts were, “you really messed up.” But immediately the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Not so, for did you notice how well they all paid attention?”