April 13th, 2022
People who are wise in the art of spiritual formation often remind us that, in the end, we would benefit greatly from understanding that we are human beings and not merely humans doing. By this, I understand them to mean that most people find their worth in what they do, as they imagine others will perceive it, whereas the biblical criteria for worth is found in who we are.
I have certainly found this to be true for me. However, it would be misleading to draw too bold a line between “being’ and “doing” because they are inextricably intertwined in the end.
A human being is, at the same time, always a human doing.
If a human stops “doing” altogether, he or she soon ceases “being” as it is understood in the biological sense. There are some activities, like breathing or eating or drinking, which I must be “doing” to sustain my “being.”
The important question is this,
“Does my ‘doing’ flow from an authentic sense of ‘being’ or from a carefully crafted image that I am constantly polishing for presentation to the world around me?”
This is not an easy question to answer.
Even as I meditate on this subject, for instance, I cannot stop myself from imagining how I might present it to others and what their response might be! Honestly, I doubt that anyone, if they are honest with themselves, could pull that off.
Integrity (wholeness and lack of duplicity) is directly proportional to the harmony between what I am doing and who I truly am. When my doing is not in line with my true being, I will suffer anxiety and stress. To put it another way, if the main motive of my actions is to reinforce my perceived image, my “packaged self,” I am a “double minded” man and prone to instability (James 1:8).
While this principle is relatively simple to understand, the remedy for this problem is often difficult to apply. Most of us have spent a good bit of our time and energy, our life, if you will, “polishing for presentation.” We are constantly asking, “How did that look?” (past)… “How does this look?” (present)… How will this look? (future).” All too often the true self has been cloaked with so many layers of social makeup that it becomes difficult for a person to distinguish between actions that flow from an authentic being and those which arise from a sculpted persona.
In fact, making this distinction with 100% honesty is probably impossible without assistance from Someone whose perspective allows Him to see with objectivity; Someone who is capable of knowing my heart in a way that I cannot. For me, that Someone is Jesus, the knower of hearts.
Salvation, in its broadest sense, is the ongoing process of renewal unto wholeness that comes from discovering our true being “in Christ.” It is deliverance from the autonomous self that we have crafted for presentation to the world (and, worse yet to ourselves!) Sanctification is the harmonizing of one’s doing and his or her true being.
This can only happen through unguarded fellowship with the one true Author of Being, the Great “I Am.”
I was always puzzled by Paul’s admonition, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). After all, he is the one who reminds us that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” (2 Tim 1:7). I found it odd that he would, in this one instance, prescribe it.
But when I began to practice unguarded fellowship with the Father through the Son, and He began, quite gently, to reveal aspects of myself that were inauthentic and fashioned by me for presentation to the public, I found it very uncomfortable.
This discomfort of having the fabricated self-challenged brought about considerable fear and trembling. This fear and trembling is actually an inevitable response when the loving Father begins to answer a child’s sincere question, “Who am I, really, and who am I not?”
If you have never done that, try it and you will see what I mean!
(If this speaks to you, I highly recommend reading The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery by David G. Benner)
I have certainly found this to be true for me. However, it would be misleading to draw too bold a line between “being’ and “doing” because they are inextricably intertwined in the end.
A human being is, at the same time, always a human doing.
If a human stops “doing” altogether, he or she soon ceases “being” as it is understood in the biological sense. There are some activities, like breathing or eating or drinking, which I must be “doing” to sustain my “being.”
The important question is this,
“Does my ‘doing’ flow from an authentic sense of ‘being’ or from a carefully crafted image that I am constantly polishing for presentation to the world around me?”
This is not an easy question to answer.
Even as I meditate on this subject, for instance, I cannot stop myself from imagining how I might present it to others and what their response might be! Honestly, I doubt that anyone, if they are honest with themselves, could pull that off.
Integrity (wholeness and lack of duplicity) is directly proportional to the harmony between what I am doing and who I truly am. When my doing is not in line with my true being, I will suffer anxiety and stress. To put it another way, if the main motive of my actions is to reinforce my perceived image, my “packaged self,” I am a “double minded” man and prone to instability (James 1:8).
While this principle is relatively simple to understand, the remedy for this problem is often difficult to apply. Most of us have spent a good bit of our time and energy, our life, if you will, “polishing for presentation.” We are constantly asking, “How did that look?” (past)… “How does this look?” (present)… How will this look? (future).” All too often the true self has been cloaked with so many layers of social makeup that it becomes difficult for a person to distinguish between actions that flow from an authentic being and those which arise from a sculpted persona.
In fact, making this distinction with 100% honesty is probably impossible without assistance from Someone whose perspective allows Him to see with objectivity; Someone who is capable of knowing my heart in a way that I cannot. For me, that Someone is Jesus, the knower of hearts.
Salvation, in its broadest sense, is the ongoing process of renewal unto wholeness that comes from discovering our true being “in Christ.” It is deliverance from the autonomous self that we have crafted for presentation to the world (and, worse yet to ourselves!) Sanctification is the harmonizing of one’s doing and his or her true being.
This can only happen through unguarded fellowship with the one true Author of Being, the Great “I Am.”
I was always puzzled by Paul’s admonition, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling” (Php 2:12). After all, he is the one who reminds us that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” (2 Tim 1:7). I found it odd that he would, in this one instance, prescribe it.
But when I began to practice unguarded fellowship with the Father through the Son, and He began, quite gently, to reveal aspects of myself that were inauthentic and fashioned by me for presentation to the public, I found it very uncomfortable.
This discomfort of having the fabricated self-challenged brought about considerable fear and trembling. This fear and trembling is actually an inevitable response when the loving Father begins to answer a child’s sincere question, “Who am I, really, and who am I not?”
If you have never done that, try it and you will see what I mean!
(If this speaks to you, I highly recommend reading The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery by David G. Benner)
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