The Heart of a Man: Who Are You Becoming?

(Post 1 of 8)

You have been here before, sitting in a suit, inside a church or funeral parlor. First, it is one of the children, then one of his friends, and sometimes his wife. Each of them walks to the front, sometimes holding back tears, to reflect on the man whose death has covered this moment of their life with a thick shadow. Their words may offer a passing glance to accomplishment or a passing story of the man, but the gist of what is said about the man will be "who he was." For some men, there is much left out, the hurt, the abuse, the absence, the scandal. Regarding the dead, only the positive qualities are expressed and honored.

It is not who you know, what you accomplish, or how much you gather in this world that will ultimately matter. It is who YOU are.

It is who you are that matters to the people around you; it is who you are that shapes others' lives, and it is who you are that can pass from one generation to the next. Who you are can give people happiness or put them in counseling.

Writer John Ortberg said it this way:

- "God gets from our lives the person we become."

Jesus of Nazareth said it this way:

- "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"

It is easy to measure our lives based on what we have accumulated—wealth, connections, achievements—or how we are doing relative to others in our neighborhood (our yard), our families, or even against our old high school rivals.

When you die, nobody cares about that. 

Life is about who you become, not what you accomplish. Until you settle this in your mind, you will be a tool to the very thing with which you measure yourself. Whether it is a 401k, the approval of another person, your place in a company, or the achievement of your children. As long as those things are your measures, those things/people will be your master. 

You are the only one who can own the person you are becoming. You can't blame a politician, your father, your spouse, your employer, or even your own body. You get to choose your own adventure.

Will you?