Being Comes Before Doing

In the Kingdom, being comes before doing. As an example, let us say I want to succeed in a chess tournament. Going out and playing in a bunch of tournaments without any preparation beforehand is a lousy strategy- it is much better to prepare for hours during the weeks leading up to the tournament, and show up ready to play. That is because you built yourself up, making yourself into something competitive. You BECAME something, then you demonstrated what you became (a good chess player) with what you DID at the chess tournament. Likewise, in the Christian faith, lots of activity that people see demonstrates little or nothing. So you lead worship? So you lead a small group? So you are an elder? What value is that? People like to define success in the kingdom, based on what they DO, but what you DO is largely meaningless, unless you've already BECOME a person of standing with the king. This requires work, that no one sees. Fasting, prayer, study... time in the presence of the King is ESSENTIAL to success. You will never be greater in the kingdom than how deep you've developed your relationship with the King... and that happens mostly when we are alone with God. There is a reason, that most spiritual disciplines are practiced alone... that is where the preparation happens for being the kind of Christian God loves. Otherwise, you might miss an opportunity to help someone stranded on the side of the road. You might miss that hitchhiker who is already thinking about spiritual things (I met someone like this in just this way, and I'm pretty sure the prayer I prayed for them made a real difference). Any jackass can go to church. That proves little. Most believers in our country are near strangers with God, and wouldn't be able to hear from God if their life depended on it. Most people know God's love as a largely theoretical thing, not something that is life-changing. I'm not saying that these activities are worthless, but in my opinion, they are worth considerably less than people give them credit for. God isn't into doing. Look at the life of Christ- 30 years of development, for 3 years of ministry. Even when in ministry, Christ still took time to pray and be alone with God when he had chances. That is because, being was always meant to come before doing. You can become a great doer, by just learning how to "be" first.

Keys to being- you must discover God's lovingkindness for yourself, without which you will accomplish very little real good in the kingdom. If your core being hasn't been transformed to the point where your security is no longer dependent on what you do, and you can sit at home away from a meeting and not feel guilty about the fact that you did not go, then you have made real progress. Be-ers are not insecure about what they don't do, they see "things to do" as opportunities, which they size up the value of relative to other priorities. Be-ers make time to be alone with God regularly, because they know that success outside is based on preparation inside. Sometimes, if things are tough, a Be-er may shut down for awhile. This is very hard for the Do-er to understand, because their worth is found in what they do, not in who they are in God. The Be-er knows, though, that their worth is not dependent in what they do, and while riding out the tough seasons is rough, it is a greater sin to break down, join the crowd of do-ers and try to find your well-being in other's opinions rather than God's. Being is hard- it takes a lot of security. Be-er's recognize that they need to do some things that are hard to do, from time to time, but also recognize that their failure to act in such a situation does not have an impact on how God sees them, just that the other person or people didn't get to be loved by the Be-er, or the Be-er missed out on receiving love from God. I see being, at times, is like the caterpillar and the butterfly. You start off with what looks like an ugly worm (the doer, pretransformation, or the be-er right at the end of a really tough season). Then the caterpillar discovers that he doesn't have to do anything to be loved, and thus begins to form a coccoon. While in the coccoon, the caterpillar appears to be doing absolutely nothing. The truth is, though, if your identity is in Christ's love, you don't need to do anything to be loved. At some point during the transformation process, spiritual truths about the kingdom get absorbed. The pains, hurts of the past, and all the garbage associated with doing starts to be shed. No longer does the caterpillar need to impress... as the butterfly, it is free. Free to love without fear, free to do what God leads them to do, free to just be. As a butterfly, love looks like an opportunity, not an obligation. Freedom means being free from needing others' approval. Freedom means living at one's own pace, not giving one wit what others think about it. As the butterfly, you choose the opportunities that sound rewarding, and are otherwise appealing- particularly the ones pointed out by our king- and it really doesn't matter whether the people around you see the value in it or not. When you discover that God's opinion is the only one that matters, you are free to ignore the doers who live for other's opinions but not God's, never understanding that only his opinion and judgement matters whatsoever. Life becomes a thing of quality over quantity, and love becomes a free-flowing thing of beauty.

Now, my one caveat. You do need other butterflies in your life to sharpen you, to help you see when you are going awry. Nevertheless, aside from gleening wisdom wherever you can find it, you never want to make a choice solely because it is what others want you to do- that is the sin that keeps everyone from greatness. Love must always come from the heart, or it is not love- it is coercion, and coerced actions mean little to our king, who cares only about what we give freely from the heart. That is what our king desires- our freely given heart, not some coerced social appearance of piety. True love is only found given freely, or it is something else, not love...