#33- Are You Becoming or Doing?
by Cory MacNeil

Remember Christmas Eve as a child?  You could hardly sleep in anticipation of Christmas Day.  The first brother or sister to wake up would get every other child up and run and jump on Mom and Dad's bed.  Finally, with a bit of coaxing and rough housing, my parents got out of bed and us kids would tear into our presents.

I'm not sure if I could lay a hand on a single Christmas gift I received as a child.  Most of them ended up broken, abandoned or sold at a garage sale.  But as long as I live, I'll never forget the anticipation of waking up to wonderful gifts.  Isn't it ironic that as children we were so anxious over temporal gifts and as adults we are so bored with eternal gifts.

In the last post you learned about the magnetic power of your future and destiny.  You learned that a bright future has the power to pull you forward.   You learned that you can tie a rope to hope or drift. In the meantime, is today going to be a significant milepost in your journey or just another chalk mark on the wall of your cell?  What is it about today that gives you something to look forward to?

Like most people, you probably think you have a problem.  What is it....an insensitive spouse....a rebellious child....unstable or diminishing finances....failing health?  Regardless of how old you are, some of these things may never change.   That's the bad news.  The good news is YOU can change.

Again, you may not be able to change your circumstances, but you can change your response.  More than problems in your life, there are patterns.  Patterns can be either your friends or your enemies.  For example, when your spouse refuses to help with the dishes, you can either yell at her or go out and buy a new flat screen for your man cave.  Just kidding!  But you get the idea.  We can resist openings to stand up for our rights or we can follow our egos like an Ox to the slaughter.  Once we nail down the idea that we can resist temptation and begin to experience the joys that come with victory, things begin to change.  Again, your wife may or may not start helping with the dishes, but your won't have oil under your nails and your monthly credit card bill will go down.

Put another way, imagine if you decided to build a shed in your back yard.  Things are going well.  You finish the foundation and begin the walls.  Then, for various reasons you begin to spend increasing amounts of time, tearing down what you've built.  For instance, you get mad because your son spills the bucket of nails and tear down a wall.  Another day you kick a door down because your neighbor complains about all of the banging.  If you're not careful, the shed will never be completed.  Why?  Because something that takes years to build can be torn down in a matter of minutes.  This applies to marriages, character, reputation, ministries (times two!) and so on.

This principle can also be applied as follows.  Great works take time.  So why not start today.  Begin with this question:  are the patterns in my life giving me my desired results or does something in the mix have to be adjusted?  The real conundrum is not what are you doing, but what are you becoming?  If your desired self portrait at the end of your life is a woman surrounded by children and grandchildren who love her, are you more patient at the family gathering on Thanksgiving than you were five years ago or do you still fly off the handle when your five year old grandson spills the gravy boat?

Now, to get back to your day.  I know you are not messed up, but your friends are, so the following advice may help.  What should I do today is a good question.  But a better question is what am I going to change today to become the person God wants me to be....that version of myself that's been alluding me for years?  Another tip is to keep your eyes on God's performance rather than your own.  His performance inspires, ours tires.

You may decide to begin by altering your calendar or the contact list on your cellphone.  But wait a minute, before you get any ideas about axing your friends on Facebook, or quitting your job, you might consider adding a few friends or expanding your work circles.  Why not kill two birds with one stone and schedule lunch with someone who is positive and successful?  After all, you're not looking to downsize, you're looking to grow, right?

When you begin to look at each day as an opportunity to become all you were designed to be and not just slots to fill with activities, an amazing thing begins to happen: you begin to live and dream and not just drift.  So why not program a better destination into your GPS today and begin the journey.  The only other option is to leave the car in park and we both know that will get you nowhere.  Besides, have you ever noticed that you can't change direction in a car unless it's moving?