Very few people have ever found rest in what they are and what they do. They are always seeking what they do not have and trying to become what they are not. These people talk about transformation, development and fulfilment but no matter their accomplishments or status, they are always thinking that they need to surpass their present state, that there is something that they are lacking and that they are running towards but never reach.
From a spiritual point of view, this condition is associated with the fall into sin and the emptiness caused by the loss of humanity’s original state. But this association is only partly true, because the sense of becoming was present in the human heart even before the fall. However, it is the sense and direction of becoming that can be perverted.
The enemy of God and humanity addresses the latter just as he addressed Jesus in the wilderness of temptation: “Don’t you want to become…?” Adam and Eve responded: “Yes, we find it desirable! How can it be done?” The enemy replied: “If you stop believing that God is who He says He is and believe that He is who I say He is…” And there was darkness over the whole face of the earth and its history.
The constant desire to become
Great is the power of the desire to become. Whether the fulfilment of this desire is constructive or destructive depends on the end, the ways and the means. It was through the perversion of the ways and means of becoming, through the perversion of its end, that the fall of mankind into sin occurred and continues to occur. Human beings are brought out of the darkness and the shadow of death in which they languish by the right and holy work of the desire to become.
It is clear that humans were created with the capacity and thirst to become imprinted in their genes: “Grow!” said the Creator, and this growth embraces the whole being and, in particular, one’s capacity for development and progress. Jesus experienced this state, as the expression shows: “And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man” (Luke 2:52). If becoming had not been present in the very fibre of His being we would only have the expression, “He was in favour”. But we have the expression “grew… in favour”, which suggests His constant striving to become, to “grow”, not only for people, but also for God.
What activates and sets in motion the struggle to become in human beings? Nothing other than what is contained in the words “in the image and likeness of God” (Genesis 1:26). Mankind will always strive to be “in the image and likeness” in which it was created. Since knowledge always precedes development, the more we know about God, the more we dedicate our whole being to this becoming. This experience, which was and is evident from the dawn of our existence, is nothing other than our response to the beauty and goodness of God. Who can remain the same person after knowing God? Who can still resist the burning desire of the soul to be “in the image and likeness”? With each new glimpse of God’s life, there is a new impulse to become.
What is the right way, and what are God’s means of responding to this striving? Was man created to experience this thirst, this inadequacy, this dissatisfaction, whatever his status and whatever his living conditions? Yes, insofar as this dissatisfaction leads to progress. But at the same time no, not at all, if it produces decay and ultimately leads to death.
Good dissatisfaction is the engine of human development. In its positive aspects, human civilisation would never have arrived here with people who “lacked nothing”! The people with a thirst for becoming, for “growing”, the dreamers who then turned their dreams into something visible and useful, were the ones who brought the good in humanity to where it is today and who will take it further, to where it must go tomorrow.
Comfort zone
The most dreaded and perverse enemy of human development and growth is what we call the “comfort zone”. This, under the guise of a state of contentment and satisfaction with the present, causes man to stop moving forward and, at the same time, to slide down the slope of degradation.
The Church of Laodicea in the third chapter of Revelation has this most undesirable experience. Its life in the comfort zone paralyses its senses and, under the influence of this drug of the mind and soul, it does not even notice when, from all that it once was, rich in the Lord, enriched in Him and having all things complete in Him, this church descends into the state of being “wretched”, “wicked”, “blind” and “empty”. In this case, the comfort zone really acts as a drug or an anaesthetic that prevents the Laodicean Church from understanding and recognising its deplorable fall. While it retains the initial sensation, it does not feel and live in the reality of its ruin and destruction. There is no trace of holy dissatisfaction, no trace of the desire to become. This church desires nothing, because the sensation it seeks tells it that it “lacks nothing”. The comfort zone does not reflect the reality of the subject’s state, but merely provides and maintains the state of “comfort” under the protection of which ruin occurs.
There is not and never will be destruction in human life and being, unless it comes to “lacking nothing”. When such a state of mind arises, it is only the sign of the abandonment of striving, growth, and becoming. The moment when man ceases to advance coincides with the moment when he begins to decline.
At the base of the huge hydroelectric dam on the Columbia River is a huge, safety glass cabin. The spectacle that can be seen there and from there is unique: large schools of fish of all sizes fighting wildly against a current of incredible strength. The fish must swim vigorously for every second and every millimetre of forward movement in the water to reach the place where they will lay their eggs and die. They tell us that above life is the continuation of life (and above the continuation of life is God). Any cessation of the struggle coincides with abandoning the dream and throwing these fighters back into the flow of the river.
I have been an eyewitness to this struggle and have seen how the fish, pushed back by the force of the current, resume the fight without ceasing until they are victorious. “Let the fish in the sea inform you,” we read in Job 12:8. I learned there that to stop moving towards God is to start moving away from Him, and to stop the good fight of becoming is the beginning of the end. This is very clear in the biological trajectory of human beings, where as soon as growth and maturation cease, decline begins, leading ultimately to death.
In addition to the comfort zone, many other enemies of development, transformation, and fulfilment arise from within and without. “Who can bring what is pure from the impure?” Job asked, and then replied, obviously disappointed, “No one” (Job 14:4).
And each of us, like Paul, realises: “I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind” (Romans 7:23). Then comes the cry of despair, “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (Romans 7:24). But after the cry of despair comes the cry of triumph, “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25), and “always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession” (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Nicodemus wanted to know: “How can this be?” (John 3:9) The answer is as simple as it is startling: “The Lord says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'” (Psalm 110:1). Of course, this promise was made to the Lord Jesus Christ, but are we not partakers of “His very great and precious promises” (2 Peter 1:4)? Are we not “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17)? No doubt that for us, for the angels, and for the Lord, the meaning of this promise of God is as different as heaven is from earth, but nevertheless the promise is equally for Christ and, within our limitations, for us who are in Jesus Christ.
So when we talk about development, transformation, and fulfilment, we are not asked to put our enemies under our feet. This would not be possible because the greatest enemy of humanity is humanity itself, both in its helplessness and in its malice: “Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jeremiah 13:23).
At the right hand or at the left hand
Passing through a bookstore in Atlanta airport, I noticed the title of a book and the idea it conveyed. The book was called, Who Says You Can’t? You Do!
What is required of us is something quite different: “Stand at my right hand!” This simply translates as the exhortation: “Be on God’s side!” When He speaks of dividing people into groups on His right hand or on His left hand, God is actually telling us that there are only two categories of people in the world: those who are on His side and those who are against Him. There is no such thing as no-man’s land: “Whoever is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).
To stand at God’s right hand is to take our stand on God’s side, it is to give God justice, it is to find pleasure in His ways, it is to have in us “the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). When we fulfil this call of God to stand at His right hand, He deals with the enemies of the good, the beautiful and the true in our being: “I make your enemies a footstool for your feet” (Psalm 110:1). This message includes, by extrapolation, everything that stands against God’s plan for our lives and against any desire for good in our lives. These are the real enemies, whether it is sin, addiction, circumstance or an unhappy emotional state. “Sit at my right hand,” says the Lord. “Be on my side, and I will place your foot on the neck of the evil that now rules your life and prevents you from enjoying the freedom of the saints in the light.” Paul echoes this promise: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20).
Certainly, when we look at our present state in relation to the greatness of our calling, we have reason to say with Elijah, “I am no better than my ancestors” (1 Kings 19:4). But let us not forget that, although there are many differences between an acorn and an oak, the acorn already contains all that is necessary to become, under the right conditions, an oak, a forest and an infinity of forests. There, in that little acorn, is concentrated all that will be the oak of tomorrow. And so it is with us: “You do not lack any spiritual gift” (1 Corinthians 1:7), and because we are not in ourselves but in Christ, we are assured: “…in Christ you have been brought to fullness” (Colossians 2:10).
Sitting at God’s right hand does not mean indifference or non-participation, but on the contrary, it means being actively on God’s side for the transformation, development, and fulfilment of your life. The words of Solomon: “Then I was the artisan at His side. I was filled with delight day after day” (Proverbs 8:30) apply equally to the work of Jesus in creating the world, but also to your and my work in building up our being in God’s image and plan with us. You at God’s right hand and God is at your right hand: “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (Psalm 16:8).
Fruitfulness has not one but two conditions: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you…” (John 15:7). As I said earlier, we are both “co-heirs” and “co-workers” with Christ. In the struggle to transform, develop, and fulfil our lives, God can do no more without us than we can do without Him. “How often I have longed…and you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). God’s will becomes omnipotent only when it is united with our will.
“Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:12), said Paul to Timothy; that is, fight on God’s side, at his right hand. “Do you believe this?” Jesus asked Martha (John 11:26). Believe in the power of your faith, and that faith will become action. A proverb of uncertain origin says that “the cave you are afraid to enter is the place where the treasure you are looking for is found.” It is not the cave or the valley of the shadow of death that we fear, but loneliness. Fear and faith are sisters, for both are based on what is unseen but believed to exist. The opposite of fear is faith, as Joan E. Ruffins titled her book. Courage comes as a result of faith or perishes under the onslaught of unbelief.
God has a plan for you. Do you have a plan with God for your life? Do you believe in God’s dream with you and your dream with God? Are you on God’s right or left hand in your life’s dream? Your life’s dream will only be fulfilled if it vibrates in harmony with God’s dream: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) is the secret of world evangelisation by the apostles, but also the secret of the fulfilment of great dreams.
The promise of Jesus to be with us was accompanied by the exhortation to go into service. These two expressions, taken together, were able to give rise to the reality that the Gospel would be preached to every creature under the sky. This is as true today as it was when it was spoken. It is as true in evangelism as it is in health, family or career.
The words of God, “For he spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:9) are reflected in the fact that people believe, and what they believe comes to be. If indeed the promise that God makes to you and the promise that you make to God are one reality, then you will believe and it will be done. Jesus said, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would” (Matthew 8:13); also, “Your faith has healed you” (Mark 5:34).
Refusing to believe in God’s Word is tantamount to condemning that Word to death. In the same way, our divinely inspired aspirations live or die according to the faith with which we meet them. Refusal to believe is the end of your life’s dream. To paraphrase Sinclair Lewis: we do not die, we kill ourselves, physically, morally or spiritually. Some people dig their graves with cutlery. The same can be said of humanity’s highest, noblest, and most beautiful aspirations. They live and are fulfilled by faith, or they wither and die by unbelief.
The blending of the will and power of God with the will and powerlessness of man is the seed that will reach the granary of heaven tomorrow. Today’s dream is tomorrow’s reality.
To be able to fly had been humanity’s dream for thousands of years. Today, flying is no longer a dream, but a reality. The greatest dream of mankind is that one day the earth will be an oasis of peace, that no harm will be done on it, that people will live in perfect harmony with nature, and that God will be everything in all. It is not just any dream, it is the greatest dream, the one that seems impossible to realise—and, separated from God, it is.
The transformation of the world is the sum of the transformations of the people who inhabit it, each and every one of them. You are one of them. The question that concerns you personally and directly is this: What does your being and your situation look like tomorrow in the light of your faith today? Is it a dream or a nightmare? Whatever it looks like now, remember that everything will be done according to your faith. Where do you sit, at God’s right hand or left hand? Where have you placed God in your life, at your right hand or at your left?
All that you will ever be in the presence of God, you are already today in the light and power of your faith, for it can be written about you, about me and about humanity in general: He believes and what he believes comes into being.
