being or doing?

“We are what we repeatedly do.”  - Aristotle

 We are, at essence, a bundle of habits.  The essential shape of lives is bounded by a set of habits and regular actions or inactions that define who we are.  We can aspire to all kind of things, wish we were different, etc., etc., but at the end of the day it’s about reshaping the stuff we repeatedly do.The scriptures describe faith as being a lot more than wishful thinking or hoping against all hope.  faith is about action, and action reinforces faith by beginning to reshape who we are.  i often hear people say that our lives ought to be more about “being” than “doing”, but i think this is wrong-headed.  the very essence of your being is actually defined by your doing.so, the trick is not about not doing anything, but more about doing the right things.  then you will end up being the kind of person you aspire to be.just a radical (?) thought… 

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 2:40 pm and is filed under life. You can feed this entry. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses

  1. mmm – I agree that life isn’t MORE about being than doing – but there has to be a balance – I see too many people frantically doing all sorts of things thinking that they are serving God…but character and spiritual qualities are missing…we have to learn to connect the doing and being stuff a whole lot better…maybe we need to start by being clearer on what we mean!

    Barry. - January 3rd, 2008 at 11:27 am

  2. well, there’s no question that we can find ourselves doing the WRONG things, or perhaps not doing the right things, but at the end of the day i still believe that we are what we habitually do…

    ob1 - January 4th, 2008 at 4:34 pm