Editor's note: The Spoken Word is shared by Lloyd Newell each Sunday during the weekly Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast.
Life is full of important things to do. But if we let those to-dos fill up our lives, we may be missing something essential about what it means to be human. After all, as it is often said, we are human beings, not human doings.
In other words, life is more about who we are becoming through our experiences not just what were doing with our time. So while its helpful to plan what we are going to do each day, we might also consider what we are going to become each day. How might the person we are at the end of the day be a little different from the person we were at the beginning?
Becoming a truly good person demands more of us than merely checking items off a to-do list. However, it also has a lot to do with what we choose to do. Those who truly become kind and caring, compassionate and generous have developed those qualities over time through the accumulation of good choices. Because the natural drift is toward selfishness and rudeness, they are intentional about resisting those inclinations and becoming a person of goodness and character. Thats demanding work! Its much easier to go with the flow, reacting without much thought to whatever comes our way, but the flow usually doesnt lead where we really want to go.
A middle-aged man, busy with many things to do, realized that he wasnt becoming what he wanted to be. He knew that what really mattered in his life was his faith, his family and his relationships. But having spent so much time building a career, he had missed many of lifes sweetest, most meaningful moments.
So with sincere desires and diligent efforts, he focused on becoming a better person. Its not that he stopped doing; its just that his doing now had a purpose: to help him become more patient, loving and compassionate his doing led to becoming. And that changed his life.
No matter how much we might need to accomplish, life was never meant to be a list of tasks. We were created to become something greater than what we now are. And the things we choose to do can lift us to that goal. This is what it means to be a human being.
Life is full of important things to do. But if we let those to-dos fill up our lives, we may be missing something essential about what it means to be human. After all, as it is often said, we are human beings, not human doings.
In other words, life is more about who we are becoming through our experiences not just what were doing with our time. So while its helpful to plan what we are going to do each day, we might also consider what we are going to become each day. How might the person we are at the end of the day be a little different from the person we were at the beginning?
Becoming a truly good person demands more of us than merely checking items off a to-do list. However, it also has a lot to do with what we choose to do. Those who truly become kind and caring, compassionate and generous have developed those qualities over time through the accumulation of good choices. Because the natural drift is toward selfishness and rudeness, they are intentional about resisting those inclinations and becoming a person of goodness and character. Thats demanding work! Its much easier to go with the flow, reacting without much thought to whatever comes our way, but the flow usually doesnt lead where we really want to go.
A middle-aged man, busy with many things to do, realized that he wasnt becoming what he wanted to be. He knew that what really mattered in his life was his faith, his family and his relationships. But having spent so much time building a career, he had missed many of lifes sweetest, most meaningful moments.
So with sincere desires and diligent efforts, he focused on becoming a better person. Its not that he stopped doing; its just that his doing now had a purpose: to help him become more patient, loving and compassionate his doing led to becoming. And that changed his life.
No matter how much we might need to accomplish, life was never meant to be a list of tasks. We were created to become something greater than what we now are. And the things we choose to do can lift us to that goal. This is what it means to be a human being.