Pursuing God’s Ways: Being vs Doing

As a child I remember being asked many times what I wanted to do when I grew up. What job did I want to have? I know my answers were a wide-range, from a football player to a zookeeper. It was a question prompting hopes and goals, a good motivator to working hard and dreaming. But the truth is what we want to do is not nearly as important as who we want to be. The older I get the more important that statement becomes. As author Charles Swindoll once said, “It’s possible to do lots of things yet be zilch [nothing] as a person.” ^[1]

I think one of the biggest challenges facing Christian leaders today is an identity crisis. We live in a world where what we do tends to define us. However, as Christ followers we can’t let that happen. We can’t be people living zilch lives! It doesn’t mean we don’t serve, give, or go, it means we do all of that out of gratitude for what God has already done for us. Our identity is not in what we do but in who we are as sons and daughters in Christ.

To pursue God’s ways is to be people of being over people of doing.

Doing vs Being, what’s the difference?

Doing often correlates with how we make a living, our career. Being on the other hand is much deeper. Being relates to our character, how we make a life. Doing is salary, involvements, and trophies – the tangible things. Being is more intangible – the kind of people we become on the inside, things that can’t be measured by awards and accolades. But of the two, being will outdistance doing every time. It’s not a quick or easy process, it often takes years in the making, but it is what lasts. Being is where the true significance and inspiration lies. ^[1]

Here is a chart ^[2] that breaks down some differences between the two.

Out of Balance?

It is easy to become unbalanced. It doesn’t take much to begin to put lots of emphasis on our doing; our accomplishments and achievements; to feed our built in hunger for security, significance and satisfaction through ministry productivity. However, the reality is that real life in Christ (being) is countercultural. Rest, solitude, dependence on God – these are things that make little sense from a worldly perspective. From a kingdom perspective however, they breed life.

The Bible clearly advocates for doing. (James 1:23-25, John 2:18, James 1:22) Both being and doing are scriptural and interrelated but the biblical order is critical: what we do should flow out of who we are, not the other way around. Otherwise, our worth and identity are determined by our achievements and accomplishments, and when we stop performing we cease to be valuable. Therefore, being should have priority over doing, but it should also be expressed in doing. ^[2]

So how do you know if you are out of balance? That your identity is skewed? Here are five questions to ponder:

5 Questions to ponder

1.  What’s your motivation for serving?
2.  Are you looking to your work for significance and security rather than to God?
3.  Is busyness and activity robbing you of healthy relationships?
4.  Are you trying to fulfill every need and request in order to please people and meet their expectations?
5.  Are you de-energized, tired and frustrated with serving and caring for people?

So what do you do if you find yourself struggling?

4 Suggestions: Using truth to reverse the cultural curse

Here are four Biblical truths that we can be sure of:

1. The Scriptures tell us that there is nothing we can do to earn favor before God, since all of our own efforts fall short of His character and righteousness. (Romans 3:23; Titus 3:5-7).
2. Just as none of our actions will make God love us more, it is equally true that there is nothing we can think, say, or do that will make God love us less than He does. (Romans 5:6-10).
3. Spiritual growth is accomplished by Christ’s life in us, not by our own attempts to create life. Our responsibility is to walk in the power of the Spirit and not in dependence on the flesh. (Galatians 2:20; 5:16-25).
4. The focus of the Christian life should not be deeds and actions, but a relationship; it is not centered on a product, but on a Person. It is a matter of abiding in Christ Jesus (John 15:1-10) rather than fulfilling a set of religious formula. Borrowed from Bible.org [2]

Once grounded in truth it is time to make some practical changes!

8 Suggestions for enhancing your daily life in Christ.

1. Develop an understanding of your limits so that you will budget time with the Father for restoring your inner resources.
2. Free yourself from bondage to the opinions, agendas, and expectations of others. Learn to say no to invitations and requests that may flatter you but could drain your time and energy.
3. Resist the temptation to allow work to invade rest.
4. Realize that rest requires faith, because it seems non-productive from the world’s point of view.
5. Try to live from moment to moment and hold a looser grip on your long-term plans. “Our great business in life is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand” (Thomas Carlyle).
6. Develop an eye that recognizes God’s beauty in nature. Give him praise!
7. Ask for the grace to see every person you meet and every circumstance you face today as a gift from God.
8. Pray, read and ask Jesus to energize your time with him, cultivating an attitude of dependence on him. Borrowed from Bible.org [2]

God sees us not for what we accomplish but for who we are in Christ. The truth is we can spend our lives giving, serving and going but if it is apart from His Spirit then all our efforts and results are considered nothing. Leaders of Reconciled World, you are forgiven, accepted, and loved not because of what you do, but because of what Jesus Christ has already done on the cross. Independent of your performance, you are loved.

May God give each of us strength to boldly stand on the truth of who we are in Christ, not caving to the pressure of valuing our doing over our being. ^[3]

Here are some more articles you may find helpful:

Being and Doing

It’s OKAY to say NO

Success and a New Measuring Stick

[1] https://www.insight.org/resources/daily-devotional/individual/doing-vs.-being

[2] https://bible.org/seriespage/2-process-spirituality-being-versus-doing

[3] Greer, Peter. The Spiritual Danger of Doing Good. Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.