Reflections on Being and Doing | Jason's Blog

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Written by Jason Pankau

Tuesday, 23 June 2009 15:04

While speaking to a corporate crowd recently about our new book Fired Up Or Burned Out, I had the opportunity to talk about the concepts of Being and Doing and how they relate to one another.

Every time I give this talk and come to the part where I talk about how the corporate world trains them to function as “human doings” rather than “human beings,” it always gets a big reaction and I receive a lot of follow-up clarifying questions. It is as if they know that something significant has just been said, but they don’t know how to change their lives or their corporate culture enough to do anything about it. I think that it is one of those statements of truth that people feel deeply, but don’t know what to do about it! It reminds me of the 18th law of Life Stewardship that we talk about in the Omega course, The Law of Training. This law states, “The life you live trains you for the life you are going to lead!”

The world we live in trains us to be human doings and not human beings. This kind of living produces a life that is far different from the life that God desires for us. God wants us to grow into fully mature human beings who are empowered by His Spirit and bear fruit in this world. If we function as human doings, it will only produce results that we in our human strength can produce.

Scripture is very clear about this in many places, but my favorite comes from 1 Peter 4:11. “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the Glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” (NIV) Now when you consider that the person who wrote these words, the Apostle Peter, was a compulsive “doer,” it highlights to me the fact that he took His own training in righteousness very seriously and God transformed Him.

If our mission on earth as Christians is to become more like Jesus, the most mature and fully alive human being ever, and we are all being trained in righteousness, then it would seem to me that the key to that training is focusing on living and relating as human beings and not human doings.

Just think about the world that you live, move and have your being in. Does it foster your connection to God, the Great I AM? Does it relate to you as a human being or a human doing? Now think about the way that you live and move and have your being with others. Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? When you look at others do you, like Jesus, see human beings or do you relate to people based on function and what they can do for you, with you, or to you?

Jesus was so secure in His love and connection with the Father, that He resisted the temptation to relate to people in this way. He was always treating people with respect and dignity, regardless of their circumstances or what he could get out of the relationship. It was because he focused His life on Experiencing and Expressing Love. Put another way, he first and foremost focused on being fully human, which He knew came through a vital connection with the Father, and then let his relating and doing flow out of that vital connection. He lived out John 15.

Understanding the connection between Being and Doing is vital if we are going to mature in faith, take hold of the life that is truly life and bear fruit that will last. Too much of what is being done in the name of God these days is being done in the strength of men, and therefore will not last or have a transforming effect. So be mindful of the patterns of your life and the lives of those around you, because “the life you live trains you for the life your will lead!” Ecclesiastes 3:14 “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it, so men will revere Him.” (NIV)

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