{"id":279,"date":"2010-03-30T14:42:07","date_gmt":"2010-03-30T14:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=279"},"modified":"2010-03-30T14:42:07","modified_gmt":"2010-03-30T14:42:07","slug":"being-belonging-and-becoming-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"Being, Belonging, and Becoming &ndash; part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><font size=\"3\"><font face=\"Georgia\"><em>\u201cJust be.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 spoken my many, followed by none<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Georgia\" size=\"3\">\u201c<em>I don\u2019t belong anywhere.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 powerless when spoken as an accusation, powerful when owned as a realization<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font face=\"Georgia\" size=\"3\"><em>\u201cThat\u2019s just the way I am.\u201d<\/em> \u2013 one of the saddest, most faithless phrases I\u2019ve ever heard<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\"><\/font>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">I\u2019ve been toying around with three human needs all of my life\u2026being, belonging, and becoming. They came to me as this simple list of words on my way to the office this morning. I thought, \u201cI bet I could categorize everything I\u2019ve ever written, every sermon I\u2019ve ever preached, every feeling I\u2019ve ever felt under these three categories.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Whether I can or not, I am fairly consumed with work of what they mean, how to practice them, and where they interact. So I thought I\u2019d write about them directly for your consideration and feedback, one at a time.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><strong><font size=\"3\">Being<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">\u201cBeing\u201d is a word that brings me peace. It confronts my inclination towards frenzy. It brings me back into the present.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">It has been said that although we are referred to as \u201chuman beings,\u201d we are better described as \u201chuman doings\u201d. And at least in most of the developed world, the idea that we are in the \u201chuman race\u201d takes on new meaning. The race we seem to be in seems so right and productive. It demands a life of \u201cdoing\u201d to be sure. And the saddest thing is, most humans can not imagine an existence that is different (and often get angry when someone seriously suggests that there is). I hear so many cultural catch-phrases that that are embedded with the \u201cwisdom\u201d of busyness.<\/font><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cSo much to do, so little time.\u201d <font size=\"1\">(so do as much as you can)<\/font>\n<li>\u201cTime is money.\u201d <font size=\"1\">(so turn as much of the first into the second as possible)<\/font>\n<li><font size=\"2\">\u201c<\/font><font size=\"2\">With great power comes great responsibility.\u201d <font size=\"1\">(if you have a talent, it\u2019s wrong not to use it at every opportunity)<\/font><\/font>\n<li><font size=\"2\">\u201cDon\u2019t just stand there, do something!\u201d <font size=\"1\">(As if just standing there isn\u2019t sometimes the thing to do)<\/font><\/font><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Flying in the face of this ever-present assumption that doing = joy, success, happiness, faithfulness is the age-old wisdom delivered through the Sons of Korah, <em>\u201cBe still and know that I am God.\u201d<\/em> (Ps 46). <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">A grown man wept uncontrollably in my presence yesterday. As he explained himself, he used words that capture in such an honest and raw way what is true, at some level, for all of us. He said, <\/font><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><font size=\"2\">\u201cI have tried everything I know to do. I\u2019ve taken it all on my own shoulders. I\u2019ve been handling it all myself. I\u2019m running myself ragged. It\u2019s not working. I don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><font size=\"2\">I told him to stop trying so hard and stop doing so much. I said that whatever it is that is next for him, the idea of &#8216;\u201dletting it happen\u201d will be better guidance than the idea of \u201cmaking it happen.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">This theme runs throughout scripture (invisibly, to most of us)\u2026<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">When faced with an overwhelming battle to fight, the people were told: <em>&#8220;Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.&#8221;<\/em> (Ex 14:13-14)<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">When they opened their Bible\u2019s for the first time in years, and felt convicted at how far their lives had strayed from the true and good ways, <em>\u201cthe Levites calmed all the people, saying, &#8220;Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve.\u201d<\/em> (Neh 8:11)<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">When others seem to have more success than them, and particularly when they do so with unfair, unjust or adversarial means, David says, <em>\u201cBe still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.\u201d<\/em> (Ps 37:7)<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">I\u2019ve learned to depend on this in my life. It\u2019s a far better (and simpler, and easier) way to live. His offer stands for every single person when he says, <em>\u201cBe still before the LORD, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.\u201d<\/em> (Zech 2:13)<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">And in case you need to see how Jesus applies this (which I always do), here\u2019s how he goes about it: <em>&#8220;My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working. I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.\u201d<\/em> (John 5:17-20)<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Nothing could be more practical than this. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Take note, doing addicts, that there is no need to defend the actual practice of doing some things. You will miss the heart of this message entirely if you need to pretend that I\u2019m lifting up some sort of constantly inactive, un-diligent, lazy or apathetic view of things as the way of Christ. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">On the contrary, there is plenty to do. Jesus said, \u201cI, too, am working.\u201d But if you do it by yourself, it will be nothing, and it will consume your life with fruitless doing. <\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">There is no shortcut. We need to learn to see what God is doing and join him in that as he shows us all he does.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">If you need something to \u201cdo\u201d \u2013 then do that.<\/font><\/p>\n<p><font size=\"2\">Next piece: <strong>Belonging<\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cJust be.\u201d \u2013 spoken my many, followed by none \u201cI don\u2019t belong anywhere.\u201d \u2013 powerless when spoken as an accusation, powerful when owned as a realization \u201cThat\u2019s just the way I am.\u201d \u2013 one of the saddest, most faithless phrases I\u2019ve ever heard &nbsp; I\u2019ve been toying around with three human needs all of my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discipleship","category-the-best-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-4v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}