"So God created human beings in His own image.
In the image of God He created them;
male and female He created them."
— Genesis 1:27
Perhaps we need to read that again.
Slower this time.
And, maybe we oughta take note of the first line of that verse.
It says:
"So God created human beings in His own image. ..."
Yes.
You read that right.
The verse says: "human beings."
It doesn't say: "human doings."
So, for those of us who feel guilty for "not doing enough," or when we do do something it's never "good enough," and because we feel like it's not good enough, then we automatically feel like we're not good enough, and we inevitably end up defining who we are by what we do, we need to be reminded that God didn't create human doings.
He created human beings—
—which means that we were meant to be before we were meant to do.
This is the part of the post where we're supposed to let out a huge sigh of relief.
And, after spending years of my life defining who I am by what I do, I'll admit that I'm one of the first to exhale.
What I do has always been of extreme importance to me. From my accomplishments all the way down to my failures, I've always taken what I do very seriously. In other words, if I do something successfully, I identify myself as successful. But, when I drop the ball, I'm quickly faced with the temptation to identify with my mistake.
And, that's why identifying who you are as what you do is dangerous. You begin to let both your successes and your failures define you, and neither of them do.
Because according to Genesis 1:27, we were being before we were doing.
From the beginning of time, before sin ever entered into the world, a human's "being" always came before their "doing."
In other words, we weren't meant to be defined by what we do.
Instead, we were always meant to be.
To be with God—as Adam was in the beginning (Genesis 2:8).
To be with people—for God said otherwise isn't good (Genesis 2:18).
To be the person God made us to be—as it was God's breath that was breathed into our lungs (Genesis 2:7).
And, in the same way God took care of Adam, as his "being" came before his "doing"—giving Adam a place (Genesis 2:8), a task (Genesis 2:15), a command (Genesis 2:16-17), and a spouse (Genesis 2:22)—so will God take care of us.
We can plan.
We can strategize.
We can work hard.
It isn't wrong to do so!
But even if we do everything perfectly, what good will that do if we aren't being the person we were meant to be? And, what will happen if we don't do something great? If we do fail? If we do sin? Will we let that keep us from being the person God made us to be? Will we decide to stay stuck in what we do when God had already meant for us to be? Don't you think it's why God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for all that we do? So that what we do no longer keeps us from being who God meant for us to be in the beginning? Do you think that's why the enemy wants us to define ourselves by what we do so that he can keep us from being the person God destined us to be in the garden?
The fact that God took care of Adam's being in the beginning and sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our doing in the end lets me know that before anything else, God has always meant for me to be.
And, to truly be is to be with Him.
Because of what Jesus did on the cross, I never have to be separate from Him. I can always be who I was meant to be because of what Jesus did.
And, so it is for you too.
You don't have to work harder, do better, or achieve more to have a more significant being. What you've done, are doing, or will do is already taken care of by your faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. The only thing left for you to do is to do what God wanted us to do from the beginning:
To be.
To be the person He made you to be.
To be in the place He put you in.
To be with the people He's allowed in your life.
Adam had all that he needed in the garden, and the only thing he did is what I'm urging us all to do in today's post:
To be.
Even further, to breathe, as he did in Genesis 2:7.
To be.
To breathe.
To let God be God and us be human.
So, for next time, when you find yourself discouraged because of what isn't crossed off on your to-do list and when you see that your bucket list isn't as complete as you had planned, remind yourself that you were meant to be. And, breathe, as God wanted Adam to do in the garden. And, the more you let yourself be the person you were always meant to be, God will lead you to do what you were always meant to do.