I could probably count on one hand the number of times my one hand touched a basketball before I went off to Georgia Christian School and started the seventh grade. Basketball was not only the number one sport in south Georgia, but at GCS, it was the number one activity - period! And I so wanted to be a player. That first year of playing JH basketball was truly a learning experience. In reality, I felt out of place and inadequate the whole year. I understood some basics, but I just didn't get it. The next year, we had a volunteer coach who really hammered us with the basics, especially on how to play defense. He was tough and really drove us, but he instilled in us a desire to play and play right. I still remember when it all started coming together and the principles of how to play hard-nosed basketball truly made sense. That's when I really began loving basketball and it was a passion of mine for a lot of years. I miss it, but I like having my own bones in my knees instead of metal replacements.
I've spent the last year seriously praying and studying about Being Real in my spiritual journey. I've tried to verbalize it in 21 sermons, 13 adult class outlines, and numerous articles and blogs. I don't know if I've helped anyone else "get it" but I truly feel that after 43 years of being a Christian - I get it. In fact, I have to change that last sentence, because it hasn't been 43 years of "being" a Christian as much as it's been 43 years of "doing" Christianity. "Being" was there sometimes, but the "doing" was certainly more important, more visible, more affirmable, and more self-serving. I'm not trying to be hyper-critical of myself as much as I'm realizing how essential to our spiritual journey our desire to truly "BE" like Jesus really is. We've got the "doing" part down. We know what we're supposed to "do" and how the "doing" declares us faithful to others. And we judge our church families by what they are "doing" and how we can get them to "do" more, and then we feel like failures because we have to keep "doing" more to get everyone else to "do" more. And we have to repeat it year after year!
Maybe it's time to start "Being". What would happen if every member would commit to honestly "being" like Jesus? Would the "doing" stop or would it increase, and maybe have more passion? Would that force us to redefine what constitutes a "successful church"? After all, what is a successful church to God? Does He even care about the "doing" if there is no "being"? At some point we are going to have to own up to our failures and the biggest failure is our insistence on "doing" without caring whether our church family is "being" like Jesus.
Like learning the principles of playing basketball, what good is practice if it doesn't help us "get it"?
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