Do Be Do Be Do

Recently Michael Toy put on his grumpy pants and posted a great little rant about being vs doing.

I liked his article and it really got me thinking again about this idea. I went roundy-roundy with myself a few months ago trying to figure out how to find worth aside from the "things I do for church". As I read and pondered and prayed, I realized there was a lack in me of being able to just sit; to just "be".

In my reading, I found there is a lot being said these days about moving away from the busyness of "doing so much" and "doing church" and trying to move toward the idea of "just being" and "being church". Michael puts these in great perspective:

the opposite of a life of scattered activity
is a life of focused activity.

the opposite of a life with no rest
is a life with a rhythm of rest and work.

the opposite of trying to get god's love through activity
is a life of giving god's love away.

none of these are "just being"

I've been stuck for awhile now, so I really appreciated Michael's re-definition of the opposites!

I remember hearing Richard Foster at a Pastor's Conference say

"The opposite of grace is works, but
the opposite of grace is not effort!"

and Todd Hunter talking about the ineffectiveness of asking WWJD -- that is a fine question to ask, but when the rubber meets the road and we try to do what Jesus would do, we fail miserably. He said it is more about training than just trying. He said

"I can ask all day long What Would Michael Jordan Do
but if I am on the court, knowing what he would do
and being trained to do it myself are very different things!"

Taking that to the next step for my purposes here, if I am "being" Michael Jordan, but not shooting the ball, I'm worthless to the team!

I moved out of my personal roundy-roundy time a few months ago by finally landing in James where he says (my paraphrase)

"If you're being, you'll do!
If you're not doing, you're not being!"

~ Keith