Having and Being

Have you ever caught yourself thinking – if I only had some cost of living relief, if I had some love/respect from my family, and had some recognition at work, then I would be happy. In short, if I had…, I would be….

This type of thinking confuses having with being. Life and joy are the result of having. So the next logical question becomes how do I get more, so I can be happier? The intuitive answer is, by doing more. Activity produces outcomes, and more activity produces more and better outcomes. If you study harder, you get better results. If you work harder, you get rewarded.

As we look around at others, or browse social media, this formula is reinforced. The people who seem the happiest, the people we are most envious of, are those who have worked hard and therefore have and can enjoy more.

And yet at the same time we realise this is a recipe for burnout. Working too hard for too long is unsustainable and unfulfilling. So we create a pressure relief value with the idea of ‘me time’. As we come closer to exhaustion, we recharge our batteries by taking a well-earned break, or with some retail therapy – we deserve it. Having re-filled our tank, we quickly get back into the fast lane so we have even more, so we can be ­even more fulfilled.

This thinking reaches into church life. If we had more income, more volunteers, more young families, more…, we would be a better church. And we want to be a better church with more, so we better get active and productive.

Is this biblical? Yes and no. Yes we should produce fruit, and we are workers in the vineyard or harvest field. But no, having is not being. As Jesus says “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15) Bigger barns and bigger churches can distract us from being God’s children.

Rev. David Rietveld