Doing and/or Being
“However that may be, let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you.”
“So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.”
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Recently I was pondering (a favorite pastime of mine) two aspects of our lives – doing and being. It brought to mind a conversation I have had hundreds of times in the years I have been working with older adults.
Usually, the older person is struggling with a health concern that has diminished life for her or him.
The person’s first impulse is to simply say, “Oh, I’m just getting old.”
But after some reflection, sometimes she will find the courage to give voice to a painful question that has been haunting her. “Why am I still here?”
She may have been a very active person in her younger years, parenting children, working a career, and serving as a leader in church and community organizations.
She had a purpose for her life in all the things she did, and she found meaning in life through her doing.
But as the changes and limitations of aging came, she was able to do less and less.
One day she realized she had lost her sense of purpose in life. She no longer knew who she was or what her life was about.
“Why am I still here?” she asked. “I can’t do anything for anyone. I just sit here and wait for each day to end.”
When purpose in life is found solely through what we can do, that sense of purpose is lost when we no longer are able to do.
Parker Palmer, in his excellent book On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity & Getting Old, wrote, “Who will I be when I can no longer do the work that has been a primary source of identity for me for the past half-century?”
It is a question of purpose and meaning, of doing and being.
We find purpose in our doing, but life is more than just what we do. We are human beings, not just human doings.
In your being you find meaning in your life. Your being is your identity, who you are, your personality, your character, your values, your attitudes.
If purpose is found in what you do, meaning is found in who you are as you do it. You find meaning in the way you live the life God has given to you.
This is not an either/or issue, it’s both/and. Your life consists of both doing and being. You need both purpose and meaning in life.
As your ability to do is diminished, find ways to renew your being. Explore new spiritual practices that renew your relationship with God.
Give more time to pondering questions that arise within you. Be who God made you to be.
And… don’t worry about why you are still here. You are a beloved child of God, gifted to serve, and to love. That’s reason enough.
Thanks be to God that we can both do and be.