What’s shaping you?
Do you know?
Have you ever stopped to consider why you are the way you are – or believe the way that you do? How did you get to where you are today? Your faith. Your character. Your priorities in life. Are they the result of intentional planning and decision-making? Or are they the conglomeration of numerous choices and experiences that have haphazardly worked together to create who you are today?
The reality is that we are all shaped by something.
Actually, we are shaped by numerous things.
But often there is one primary shaping force.
As a Christian – a follower of Jesus – I work to make that shaping influence Jesus Christ. This is the life of a disciple – to follow in the foot steps of “The Master.” To learn his heart and his mind – and how they shape the way that he lived – so that those same things might shape the way that we feel and think and live.
Our work is to learn how to learn – and how to follow – the lead of the Master.
As we do this, as we yield to the ways of knowing and being that we see embodied in the one we follow, we are changed. We are shaped and formed – mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – more and more into the likeness of the one we follow.
This kind of formation doesn’t just happen. It’s a choice. An intentional choice that we must choose over and over again. As we yield our lives to the will and ways of Jesus, as we choose to follow him and his example, we become like clay in the hands of the potter.
Workable. Mold-able. Malleable.
But what happens if we don’t make this choice? If we’re not intentional to put our lives in the hands of the Potter?
Again, we are all shaped by something.
If it’s not God doing the shaping – then who is it? Or what is it?
The answer to that question means everything.
We are all a work in progress.
We all need to be aware of, and intentional about, Who (or what) is shaping us.
Re-read this post and consider the ramifications of allowing that primary shaping force in our life to be something other than Jesus. Possessions. Relationships. Pop-culture. Power. The media. Fame. Nothing else works. Nothing else makes sense.
Again, we are all shaped by something.
