What We Practice We Become

Graduating college was strange. After 5 years of practicing school, practicing music, practicing sports, practicing relationships, practicing multi-tasking, I was all practiced out. I was used to practicing lots of things and neglecting other things.

Having your first job is even more strange. All that practicing of college was done and then I just had one job to do. No more practicing school, or sports, or as much multi-tasking. It shook me for a loop. It was a shock to the system. Over those 5 years I had become something - a college student I suppose. And then, overnight, I had to become something else. And what was supposed to prepare me for that, didn't prepare me well. I guess I learned how to learn and I learned how to multi-task, but I'm not sure I had yet learned much about how to live. We're in such a hurry as a culture aren't we? But where are we going and what are we becoming? It seems we scarcely have the time to ask such questions seriously.

I did something unusual. Most people don't do things like this. But I decided to quit. Just quit just about everything I was doing and stop becoming what I was becoming. I suppose it was Jesus that stopped me and forced me to slow down. Sure I was becoming an athlete, becoming a musician, becoming a teacher, becoming all of these "good" things. But I was also becoming a mess. I was overworked, exhausted, broken, and really confused with no coherant worldview, just remnants of the small one I once had now demolished by the University. In all my becoming I was failing to become healthy or whole or content, but I suppose those were my goals all along. But was I was practicing wasn't getting me where I really wanted to be. And so I stopped "doing" and decided to think about what sort of person I really wanted to become. And I was also struck by the kind of person I was called by God to become. And it was beginning to look like I might become a very new sort of person. I wasn't sure what to do, and I'm still not sure what to do, but I am sure I am supposed to become something different than what I am today - something new.

When Christ invades our lives, our hearts, our psyches, our world, we are asked to become something different, something better, something that resembles someone more like him. But I've been so used to becoming so many other things. Becoming what my parents want, what my coaches want, what my peers think is cool, what society says is good and respectable, what intellectuals think is worthwhile, and what I think I want to become. But none of that satisfies does it, really? It never does, but why do I keep looking for these things to satisfy when now I know they never will? They weren't meant to be ends in and of themselves. This life was meant to be the training ground for a new kind of life.

So now, I must become something different, someone different, someone more whole, more creative, more loving, more filled with strength, joy, and peace.

How do I do it?

What I practice I will become. The Lord says that whatever we ask for in his name, we will receive. So, I must first of all ask, but then I must also practice. Every day we are becoming more of something. We are becoming more of what we will be forever.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" - Hebrews 12:1

We are called to become more of the person He created us to be by simply offering ourselves to him each day, one day at a time. And we must pray and practice if we are to become more like him. And someday, when this life filled with joys, cares, and sorrows comes to an end, we will become glorious.