Being and Doing
As the first week of Advent flew by and we now find ourselves right in the middle of the second week, I wonder how many of us are startled by how quickly the time goes by as we make our way towards Christmas morning. In order to really make the most of this Advent, last week I suggested that we begin by “re-sensitizing” our hearts to the biblical worldview by taking note of what kind of perspective is presented in the media we consume.
If last week’s article was an attempt to slow down the rushed sense we feel leading up to the birth of Christ, this week we are going to come to a full halt.
Instead of focusing on another habit or practice that we can take up to help us recognize not only the importance of Advent, but also our identity as beloved children of God the Father, we won’t talk about doing anything at all… in fact, we will simply focus on being.
It is normal in most areas of our lives that, in order to achieve something or in order to be better at something, we must work incredibly hard by focusing only on our goal, establishing productive disciplined habits, and tirelessly doing whatever we can to achieve our desired end. Anyone that wants to be proficient in their field knows this well. When I was in college and graduate school, I would spend hours each day practicing my instrument, sacrificing time with friends, so that I could sound my best in hopes of being the best. Competitive fields - like medicine or the arts demands practicing the necessary habits well in order to be the best.
While seeing men and women achieve at high levels in their field is really a beautiful thing, unfortunately, when it comes to our relationship with God, we can try to carry over this need to do in order to be, resulting in nothing but frustration and a warped sense of who God is, and in turn, a distorted sense of who we are. In the professional world it makes sense: in order to be the best, you must do certain things to reach that point; but, in our relationship with God the inverse is true, first we must be and doing follows naturally after.
Many convince themselves that doing precedes being in their relationship with God which leads them to believe the false idea (whether they admit this or not) that God’s love is earned and that they have to do x, y, or z absolutely perfectly and never cease doing these things lest God will cease loving them. Put this plainly, it is easy to see how this distorts who God has revealed Himself to be. No longer do we see a good Father who wants to shower us with His love; instead, we become trapped in an oppressive system of indentured servitude, believing that if only we do so much that we will finally feel free, but in reality we are becoming more and more trapped and confined within the lie of earning His love.
Seeing God in this distorted light can sometimes be a result of the relationship we have with our own parents. Perhaps our parents were or are incredibly demanding to the point that they withhold any kind of affection or praise until we demonstrate how successful we have become or how useful we can be to them. These unfortunate dynamics within a parent-child relationship can lead a person to imprinting this distorted view of a parent onto God Himself. We can believe that we are unlovable to God until we demonstrate our success or usefulness.
Regardless of how the distorted sense of doing preceding being came into our lives, we need to recognize that the opposite more accurately reflects the reality of our God and our own person. No better example of this truth exists than Jesus, the Son of God, himself.
Jesus did amazing things. He fed the 5000, he cured the blind and the leper, he raised the dead, spoke words that stand the test of time, and laid down his life for each of us so that we may have an opportunity to enter eternal life. In all of this doing, however, Christ was not earning his Father’s love or trying to feel useful or successful. The reason that Christ was able to do so many wonderful and miraculous things without jeopardizing his relationship with his Father is because he was so clearly grounded, first and foremost, in his identity as Son of God.
Christ understood his identity in light of his relationship with his Father. This clarity in identity is shown to us as he is able to simply be in that relationship and that all of his mighty works flowed and poured beautifully out of him as a result of this relationship.
We see this shown to us at the very beginning of his public ministry. In Matthew 3, Christ is baptized and in verse 17 the voice of the Father speaks from heaven and says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” We then hear how Christ was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Each of the temptations that the devil lays before Christ seems to be an attempt to distort the identity that we heard about just a few verses before. The devil tries to get Jesus to rely on doing as he tells him to turn stones to bread, to command angels to save him from falling from his death, and finally to worship the devil in order to reign over all of the kingdoms of the earth. Christ responds well to each temptation and leans into our need to simply be as he rebukes the devil, insisting that we must rely on every word that comes from the mouth of God, that we must abandon ourselves to the providence and care of our God, and that is it God alone who we should worship. These responses show the intimacy of relationship that Christ shares with his Father. Even in the midst of great temptation to start doing, Christ surrenders himself entirely to the will of the Father.
As Christ’s public ministry continues, we see that his words of teaching that astound those who hear them, his miracles, and ultimately his sacrifice on the Cross are all grounded in having this clear identity of being the Beloved Son of the Father.
Through his Death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven Christ has offered us the opportunity to follow his model of being before doing by becoming adopted children of the Father. In our baptism, we are reborn as sons of God and, as such, have the capacity to dwell within that goodness and simply be a beloved child of God the Father.
One of my favorite lines from scripture is found in the first letter of St. John where he exclaims, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (1 Jn 3:1). This is someone who fully understands and abides in his sonship to the Father. He recognizes the goodness of the love that has been poured out onto us to make us His children and praises God that he can simply exist within this reality.
Being a child of God is not meant to be in conflict with doing. Rather, when we can firmly ground ourselves in who we are by virtue of our baptisms, we can more effectively express that relationship in what we do.
If you find ourselves frustrated in prayer and wonder why all of the hours we spend in adoration, praying the same prayers, seems to leave us feeling flat, return to your identity as a beloved child of God the Father - ponder that relationship and how you are so incredibly loved simply because you exist.
If you find that how you care for others leaves you feeling empty, ponder your childhood in God. Let Him be the source of who you are and what you do.
It is amazing to see the beautiful and miraculous actions of men and women who have rooted themselves in this baptismal identity. While their work is demanding and for many would lead to burnout, we see that those who ground themselves in this foundational identity love others almost effortlessly and without ceasing. Those who firmly see themselves as beloved children of the Father seem to be able to do more because they are not rooting their actions in a need to impress God, but simply let the good works flow out of them to glorify the source of their existence.
During these brief few weeks of Advent, perhaps it is not good enough to simply slow down. It may be best to completely stop - stop everything that we are doing and simply re-learn and abide in what it means to be a beloved child of the Father. The world will continue to buzz around you and you may feel tempted to join in the frenetic pace and simply do more, do more, do more. Like Christ, let’s resist that temptation and listen to the voice of our Father speaking into our hearts as He says, “you are my beloved child.”