‘Becoming’ is the starting point

What are you ‘becoming’ and what are you ‘being’?

‘Becoming’ and ‘being’ are two words that stuck with me from a sermon that I heard a few weeks ago.

Many people want to become a leader, business owner, and parent or spouse to someone else but too often, we forget that ‘becoming’ isn’t ‘being’.

Becoming a spouse, parent or leader doesn’t make you one.

Too many children are growing up fatherless because they have ‘baby daddies’ for fathers. These are men whose active involvements stop after conception, soon after birth and sadly sometimes through their entire lives.

In the same way, some women want to become mothers without thinking through the sacrifices it takes to become a mother.

Some people work their socks off to get the jobs of their dreams and soon their enthusiasm wane and become a shadow of the effort they put in to get the jobs.

Others want to get married at all costs but in reality, they are not ready to lay down themselves for their spouses. They become wives and husbands but soon feel trapped because they never counted the cost of moving from ‘becoming’ to ‘being’.

Some of us want to become bosses but have we thought about what being a boss truly means?

It means laying down ourselves for our people, investing in their growth and having their backs even when errors are made. 

What about those who want to be self employed or run their own businesses? Becoming self-employed is easy, but being our own bosses come with great challenges, costs and risks.

There’s a starting point to anything in life but staying the course and being true to whatever we are called should always be our main goal.

In the Bible, we read the story of a man called David who became the king of Israel. Soon enough the man with great leadership potential, who was handpicked to lead, shirked his kingly duties.

He failed in his leadership, which led to him being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

In that wrong place, he ended up sleeping with another man’s wife, impregnating her and orchestrating her husband’s death to keep his wrongdoings under wrap.

David succeeded at ‘becoming’ a king but he failed at ‘being’ a king because he lost sight of why he was made king. He forgot that becoming a king wasn’t the goal, being a king was the goal.’

David retraced his steps, atoned for his errors and eventually became the king that the people needed.

We can all learn from his story by looking at what we have ‘become’ and ask the questions to determine if we stopped at ‘becoming’ or if we moved on to ‘being’.

Here are a few ‘becomings’ to ponder on:

Have you become or are you being a parent?

Are you being a spouse or did you just become one?

Are you being an entrepreneur now that you’ve become one?

Are you being a Christian or did you stop at just becoming one?

Remember:

Becoming a leader isn’t the goal, being the exceptional leader the people need is.

Becoming a follower isn’t the goal, being a follower who has the back of their leader is.

Getting that dream job or promotion shouldn’t just be your goal, doing the job to the best of your ability and growing on the job should be the goal.

Having a good church isn’t the goal, filling the world with goodness is.

So as we start a new week, think about all you have become – relationships, family, work, business or faith wise – and ask yourself the question:

Did I just ‘become’ or am I ‘being’?

Don’t stop at asking the question, take some actions if you need to.

Even if you think you are ‘being’, ask the next question, how well am I doing at ‘being’? How well am I doing at ‘being’ a spouse, parent, business owner, employer, leader, employee or friend?

Thank you for reading my post. Please comment, like and share with others. See you next week.