CHATTEL OR CHAMPION
Surviving the Route, Not Choosing the Destination
There is a difference between moving forward and actually choosing where I am going.
I can spend my entire life reacting — meeting deadlines, solving problems, surviving disappointments, carrying responsibilities, putting out fires — and never stop long enough to ask:
Who is all of this turning me into?
Because if I haven't chosen who I am becoming, my circumstances will choose for me.
And circumstances are powerful sculptors.
Pressure, Pain, Success, Fear, Disappointment, Urgency — ALL these will shape me...
Unless I deliberately submit that formation to Someone greater.
Scripture says:
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
— Proverbs 16:9
I can choose the route.
I can organize the calendar, even decide what goes on it next.
But there is a difference between making plans and surrendering direction.
Because you can become incredibly disciplined at becoming someone you never wanted to be.
That may be one of the most dangerous forms of drifting because it doesn't look like drifting.
It looks productive, responsible, and it looks like progress.
I'm making appointments.
Keeping commitments.
Finishing projects.
Taking care of everybody.
Getting to the next destination.
But I can become so consumed with surviving the route that I never ask:
Who chose the destination?
A man can control his calendar and still surrender his character to circumstance.
And if who I am becoming isn't being forged by Him, then I will likely be shaped by my circumstances instead.
Paul warns us about exactly that kind of unconscious formation:
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
— Romans 12:2
That word matters.
Conformed.
Pressed into a shape.
Molded by what surrounds me.
That happens whether I pay attention to it or not.
The pressures around me are always trying to tell me who I need to become.
Harden up.
Protect yourself.
Make more money.
Prove yourself.
Stay busy.
Don't slow down.
Don't trust anybody.
Don't let them see weakness.
Win.
Survive.
Keep moving!!!
And somewhere along the route, if I'm not careful, I can wake up and realize I've become a man I never consciously chose to be.
Not because I made one catastrophic decision.
Because I made a thousand small reactions.
That is the difference between being chattel and becoming a champion.
Chattel does not choose its direction. It is moved according to the will of whatever possesses it.
Circumstance decides.
Pressure decides.
Fear decides.
The calendar decides.
Everybody else's expectations decide.
But the champion I'm talking about isn't the man who controls everything around him.
He's the man who refuses to let everything around him determine who he becomes.
He submits the hammer.
The heat.
The pressure.
The disappointment.
The victory.
The schedule.
The entire route to the hands of the One doing the forging.
The question, then, isn't simply: Am I moving?
It's: Am I being led?
And maybe even more importantly:
Is the man I am becoming the man God is forming me to be?
