Choosing TO BE vs. Choosing to NOT BE

"Okay," you say, "that's all very well and good, but now what? We understand that we are called into BEING first, out of which flows our doing. We see that this began right at the Fall, where Eve believed that by doing something first, this would cause her to become someone as a result. And upon evaluation, how many of my friends notice WHO I am separate from what I do? How do I BE first and DO second?"

Well, it is ironic that my first inclination would be to give you a list of things you should DO to help you to BE. So instead of doing that I think I would like to raise some points for consideration about what SHOULD NOT be done. And we can work from there...

I think it is really important to make the distinction between you choosing NOT to "be like that" as opposed TO choosing "to be like that." Confusing? Let me use an example. I have had conversations with many different couples early on in their relationship - and they have said to me things like: "We don't want to be like so-and-so..." or "We don't want to do what they do when such-and-such happened" and so on. All of these sentences cloaked in "don'ts" and looking at...who? Looking at other couples. They choose who they become as a couple based on what parts of other couples they don't (or sometimes do) like. But the focus is all wrong. Rather then frolicking (I love that word!) in the freedom of choice that we have in Christ to BE someone as opposed to NOT be someone...they look horizontally at others and decide what the standard should be.

So, I think the first point of consideration: what is the standard for which you are striving? Who are you called to be? And not: who are you called to NOT be.