Who Am I Becoming?

Lorie Dewey

"And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image" (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT).

About ten years ago I received a Christmas letter from a dear friend who has mentored me over the years. It was a different kind of Christmas letter. It wasn’t the usual rundown of family activities. No, she wrote about things she was learning in life and about personal challenges she was growing through. At the end of her thoughts, she wrote, "In these holiday letters it is all too common for us to report on what we are busy doing, but I want to know who are you becoming?"

Who was I becoming? I didn’t know how to answer that, and it bothered me. I could easily respond to the doing question, no problem. I was a mom with three little boys; I was "doing" all the time, and I was exhausted! But in the rush of all that activity I wasn’t paying much attention to who I was becoming. As I reflected on my friend’s question, I groped for an answer in my soul and came up with little to offer.

Matthew 16:26 says, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (ESV).

In my heart I knew what my friend was asking; she wanted to know if I was paying attention to the Holy Spirit’s formational work in my life. Whether I was paying attention or not, I was becoming something: I was either becoming more like Christ or I was not. From that day on I’ve paid attention to her question.

A passage from Bob Mulholland’s book Invitation to a Journey indicates that who I am becoming involves…

an increasingly faithful response to the One whose purpose shapes our path, whose grace redeems our detours, whose power liberates us from crippling bondages of the prior journey and whose transforming presence meets us at each turn in the road. In other words, [it’s] a pilgrimage of deepening responsiveness to God’s control of our life and being. (p. 12)

Who are you becoming?

In this summer blog, we are going to be asking that question over and over, applying it to different situations and circumstances we all face in life.

Join us. But don’t just read the words; ask God who He wants you to become and then listen to what you hear.

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

M. Robert Mulholland, Jr., Invitation to a Journey: A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993).