The Pressure to Accomplish Snuffs Out the Pleasure of Being God's Child

Peasant Woman Threading a Needle by Jules Breton

“To live in the past and future is easy. To live in the present is like threading a needle.”
~ Walter Percy in Lancelot

In his book Conformed to His Image Kenneth Boa explains, “For many people, life has become so filled with if-only of the future that today becomes an inconvenient obstacle in the path of reaching tomorrow…We have a natural tendency to invest our energies in goals and accomplishments we hope to achieve in the days ahead. The problem is that even when we are able to attain these ends, we are already thinking of the next one. Thus, by moving from one product to product, we are rarely alive to the realities of the present.”

Our secular world puts value on accomplishments. These achievements define who you are. Boa says, “In our society, we increasingly tend to be human doings rather than human beings.”

As a follower of Christ my identity and significance are rooted in who I am in Him, a state of being, not doing (2 Corinthians 5:17). As a result of who I am in Christ, I will do things out of gratitude and love for my Lord.

The world’s grid or standard to judge a person’s value often dislodges the biblical one in my head. This is where I begin to set goals that will achieve a certain end or product. If I can lead or even attend a woman’s Bible study for so many weeks, or make it through the summer by continuing some basic education goals with my children, or teach them some life skills (cooking, cleaning, balancing a checkbook, etc.), then I’m an accomplished and mature Christian woman at this stage in my life. I’m judging my growth in Christ by the products I think I should produce.

Even if I attain the desired goals I will be consumed with planning the next achievement. Boa said, “Thus by moving from product to product, we are rarely alive to the realities of the present.”

There is an increased discontentment about the present. I’m beginning to understand this product driven spirituality is at the root of it. I don’t allow myself to step back and rejoice in things like: the school year’s accomplishments or my daughter’s recent baptism (done by my hubby). I’m so busy looking at the future’s nearest hurdles. It is a treadmill that I want to get off of because I’m exhausted and I’m getting no where!

Boa writes, “From a biblical perspective, our fundamental choice should be to know and become like the Lord Jesus. This choice is compatible with living in the present, the only point at which time intersects eternity. This aspiration animates our present, makes us alive to the process of daily experience, and informs our planning.”
My heart has cried out in prayer for some time now, “How do I do this? How do I stop the focus of attaining a product so that I might enjoy more of a daily process?” God’s answer to my heart has come with a reminder and a new application.

The Reminder:
Our deepest need as people was created by God to know and enjoy Him, Our Creator. The process to come to know and enjoy the Creator is a journey.

This journey is why I love the Hinds’ Feet on High Places book. I relate to Much-Afraid’s adventures in every chapter. John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress is another good book (my next read) encouraged by Ken Boa. He writes, “To follow Christ is to move into territory that is unknown to us and to count on his purposeful guidance…It is to learn to respond to God’s providential care in deepening ways and to accept the pilgrim character of earthly existence with its uncertainties, setbacks, disappointments, surprises, and joys. It is to remember that we are in a process of gradual conformity to the image of Christ so that we can love and serve others along the way.”

My New Application:

I’m learning to watercolor paint. This new hobby requires a willingness to engage in the process of learning and creating. I love to get outside in God’s magnificent Creation. I struggle to find words of gratitude for what I see and experience. I want to paint some of it as a gift of love back to Him. To sit in silence and soak up what the created order says about God fills my soul like no other. Sketching a scene, and then re-living it later by painting it, will help me revel in God's creation without being consumed with the final product.

The only danger I see in this new project is my perfectionist tendency. I will be critical and judge an end product (any painting) and be discouraged enough to give it up. But the teacher in my DVD course has encouraged the students to keep everything, so that we can see the progress of our skills.

I’ve begun the tutorials with this in mind and I’m realizing that God’s choice of medium (watercolors) will help me dislodge the “get everything perfect” mentality. When you mix paint and apply it to the paper it will change once it is dry. So, the very aspect of not seeing exactly what will appear at the end is already a huge frustration to me. This forces me to relax and enjoy the journey while waiting for the surprise of the end result. I’m not sure if this makes sense to you but God is refining a particularly hard edge to my surface.

Learning to paint with watercolor forces me to live in the present and enjoy the moment. The parallel to this is in my journey to become more like Christ which is a gradual development. Boa concludes, “The process of genuine response to what God is doing in our lives is more critical than the visible product.” So, my attitude toward the mistakes in a painting will be like fighting God on not seeing a tangible product in my growth in Him.

This weekend I’m going on a Solitary Retreat to let the Lord love on me through the beauty of nature near a lovely river, and in a hidden garden. I will be soaking in the hot springs and walking the trail to the waterfalls. My sketchbook and painting supplies will join me as I respond to my Creator in love and in the sheer enjoyment of His presence.

In a Garden

The kiss of the sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

~ Dorothy F.B. Gurney