Human Being, or Human Becoming?

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
"Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." 1 John 3:2 (NAS)

"I will walk about in freedom for I have sought out your precepts." Psalm 119:45 (NIV)

"Cover ears when stealing bell" (掩耳盗铃 Yan Er Dao Ling) Chinese Saying, 770-560 B.C.

Becoming Like Him Our brief time on this small spinning globe is not about being but becoming. I am not simply one person but a succession of persons, each shaped by all of the people and circumstances that have led up to this day in my life. When I arrived in China twenty years ago I'd have never imagined who I would be today, and I've no idea where or who I'll be in another 20 years, but that is okay because neither did John, who in 1 John 3:2, wrote that we don't yet know what we will be, but when Christ appears we will be like him. But what will it take to make us like him?

God's Breath in Living Clay Isaiah said, "will the clay say to the potter, 'What are you doing?" (Isaiah 45:9 NAS). But we do talk back to the potter because we are not ordinary inanimate lumps of clay but living works brought to life by the very breath of God Himself (Genesis 2:7), and this little planet is the spinning potter's wheel upon which we are daily shaped. But ever since the Garden, when Adam and Eve tried to steal knowledge rather than earn it, we have questioned our Father's motives and methods, and fancied that we are self-made. This is about as intelligent as the ancient Chinese thief who covered his own ears when he stole the bell.

Bad Breath in Living Clay. Today, we still argue and strive with our maker, and try to take things into our own hands. As Paul said in Romans 9:20 (AKJV), "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?" But we question our Maker because we think 1) we know ourselves and our own needs better than He does, and 2) He does not see what we are trying to get away with (Isaiah 29:15, 16).

Malleable--More or Less The Potter is molding me today into what I shall become tomorrow, yet there is a unique relationship between the Potter and His animate clay. He spins the potter's wheel in space and molds us daily with circumstances, but living clay can choose to be soft and pliable and hasten its transformation from shapeless and useless lumps into useful vessels, or we can harden our hearts and beings. This, of course, hurts the clay much more than the wheel, and if we are hard enough long enough we may need to be broken and remade.

Father Potter. Fortunately for us, we are being molded not by a disinterested potter making a pot for a profit but by a loving Father who shapes us as gently as we will allow him. When we are faced with difficulties, we can take comfort and strength in the knowledge that not only is He behind it all but also in it with us. Isaiah 64:8 (NAS): "But now, O LORD, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand."

Shaped by Limits We are shaped daily by circumstances in which He places us, or in which we place ourselves. We can make it much easier on ourselves if we choose His circumstances rather than our own, and these are revealed clearly in His word. "I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me." Psalm 119:19 (NIV)

Limits Give Freedom Ironically, obedience does not constrain us but frees us. "I will walk about in freedom for I have sought out your precepts." Psalm 119:45 (NIV) Or as Paul put it, "To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled." Titus 1:15 NAS

Disobedience brings only fleeting pleasure, pain, and brokenness, but obedience allows us to enjoy all He would give us, and to become all that He would make of us--which is a good deal more than we can make of ourselves.

The Limits to Maslow Abraham Maslow taught that we have a hierarchy of needs: physical, security, belonging, self-esteem, and self-actualization. This is a useful guideline but it stops short. Self-actualization means "becoming all we can be," but there is a big difference between becoming all I can be and all that my Father can make of me. And what can I become? As John wrote in 1 John 3:2, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is." 1 John 3:2 (NAS)

Royal Clay Today, I am not just a lump of clay, or even an animate lump of clay, but a child of God. And when our Father Potter is finished with us, we shall be like Him because "we will see Him just as He is." And when shall we see Him? The delay is on our part, not His. He is ready for us now, but we are not ready yet for Him.

Today's Spin This morning, the Potter's Wheel spins yet again. I hope that our decisions today serve not to delay but to hasten our becoming and His returning.

"Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, "Who sees us?" or "Who knows us?" You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, "He did not make me"; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, "He has no understanding"? Isaiah 29: 15,16 NAS
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