Growing Through Challenge - The Grand Adventure Of Becoming

                          WHAT ARE YOU BECOMING

This is a quest of paramount importance because each day you and I are gradually "becoming"... becoming more or less of something. Life is not a static state, but rather a dynamic, fluid condition where we are always changing, little by little, for the better or the worse.

                              NOT HUMAN "BEINGS"

That may sound strange, but really we are not so much human 'beings' as much as we are human 'BE-COMINGS'. The famed British author C.S. Lewis said that we are all gradually becoming either "Everlasting Splendors" or "Eternal Horrors". The Bible also speaks in many places about an eternal destiny that each of us is inexorably moving toward. That thought should at least give us pause.

                                      DIRECTION

The direction of your daily, seemingly small choices is ever so gradually taking you down a path closer to one of two destinies. One path leads you to become more self-centered, which in turn tends toward smallness, pettiness, and shallowness.
Self-centeredness may be more natural... but most of us would agree that it does not lead to genuinely rewarding ends.

The other path is described in the Bible as our Creator's goal to help us become more like Jesus Christ. His was a life that exemplified finding one's life by "losing it" in service to others. He showed that life's best is found, not in how much we can "get", but in how much we can "give". Those who follow Jesus in this path are headed for a different destiny and are gradually becoming a very different kind of person.

If you would like to head in a certain direction, it always helps to have a goal in mind. Our Creator doesn't leave us in the dark here. If you would like to head in a certain direction, it always helps to have a goal in mind. Our Creator doesn't leave us in the dark here. In Galatians 5:22 He spells out some very specific characteristics of the kind of person He would like for us to "BECOME". He describes these qualities as "fruit" that He would like to help grow in our lives as we choose to daily follow the leading of His Spirit who indwells us. Look at the list...

               LOVE ~ JOY ~ PEACE ~ PATIENCE ~ KINDNESS ~ GOODNESS
                      FAITHFULNESS ~ GENTLENESS ~ SELF-CONTROL

What do you think? Anything on the list you would like to see more people exhibit in their daily attitudes and actions? Anything on the list YOU would like to BECOME more of?

                                PAST AND FUTURE

The good news is that your past doesn't have to rule your future. If you don't like what you have been "BECOMING" God is waiting for you with His gracious help to move you toward a wonderfully different destiny. He can make the past, truly the past. If you genuinely want to BECOME a different kind of person on the inside, He will be delighted to give you all of His awesome wealth of help that you are able and willing daily to receive.

                            NEGATIVE INFLUENCES

If we are trying to become more of what our Creator wants to help us become, both now and in eternity... what are some of the influences that might tend to hold us back or retard our progress? Here are a few that readily come to mind; I am sure you can think of others.

Negative content of what we choose to allow to occupy our minds.

Replaying painful memories of past hurts.

Holding onto grudges, allowing roots of bitterness to entwine and harm our spirits.

Poor choices in close personal relationships.

"Mental Candy" (or perhaps even "mental poison") we read, watch or listen to.
Unfortunately there is no simple list of "do's" and 'don'ts" here. We do, however, have some wise guidance from the apostle Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth... "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable; all things are lawful, but not all things build us up."

Survey some of your recent choices... do they really "build you up"? Do they contribute to helping you become more of the person you want to become?

                             POSITIVE INFLUENCES

Really, this list is much the same as the above list... just better choices for each category. For example, you have surely experienced the powerful, uplifting effect of great and noble music, literature and drama, whether performed live or in the movies.

Distressingly, the shallow, superficial, even degrading seems to be much more prevalent and seductive of our time and attention. Almost before we know what has happened, we experience that empty feeling inside... the feeling that we've wasted perhaps hours on mental candy... or worse.

If you are really serious about the nurture and growth of your spiritual nature, then you know the pang of realizing that you have allowed yourself to be pulled farther away, than closer to your ideals.

The key here may be as simple as just cooperating more with God's leading as you gradually BECOME a person who makes better choices.

                            ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE

There is no way I could overstress the importance of developing a "long-distance" view, an "eternal perspective" of our existence. Otherwise, the ragged edges of daily life will often distort our vision and retard our growth. C.S. Lewis had a wonderful analogy in which he likened the story of our existence to a grand book of which, during our short earthly life we "only get through the preface". "But" said Lewis, " someday we will get to step into Chapter One... and then each succeeding chapter only keeps getting better."

                                 THE HARD TIMES

That kind of perspective will work wonders in helping you with the difficult daily circumstances we all face. An eternal perspective of what you are becoming will greatly assist you in overlooking the trivial and petty, freeing you to live by faith, to believe in a glorious final outworking of all life's temporary problems by a loving Almighty God and Father.

                               BEYOND ORDINARY

With this long-distance point of view nothing is mundane or ordinary... every task or circumstance can take on eternal significance because you are always BECOMING... and you are continually touching the lives of others who are BECOMING also. Again, Paul put it in wonderful words in II Corinthians 4:16-18... "So we lose not heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed... for we are focusing our vision not on what can be seen, but on what cannot be seen, because the things which can be seen are only temporary, but the things which cannot be seen are eternal."

                              QUOTES TO PONDER

"Change for the better is not something that happens to you, but something you participate in BECOMING!" ___G.D.

"Become transformed by the renewing of your mind." ___Romans 12:2

"Learn how to rethink, and you start to change." ___Chris Turner

"Try not to become a person of success but rather try to become a person of value." ___Albert Einstein

"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be!" ___Coach John Wooden

"From eternity's vantage point, the important thing is not what you go through of life's trials, but how you go through them. What will you learn and grow and become more because of them... that is the important thing." ___G.D.

"You must decide how to view your existence... are you a BODY with a Spirit... or a SPIRITUAL BEING living in a TEMPORARY BODY?" ___Dr. Wayne Dyer

"Think about life as if you were on your deathbed. People on their deathbeds look back on life with a special perspective." ___Don Baker

"Success has nothing to do with the things you are acquiring... and everything to do with what you are becoming." ___unknown

"What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?" ___Jesus Christ