Each one of us is a product of our Environment, relationships, past trauma's, habits, time, experience and beliefs. These form us, they help make us who we are as people and that doesn't cease. Your current environment, relationships, practices and habits etc will continue to influence you and change you in ways so subtle that you may not even recognize them at first, until you take a long hard look at yourself. Some of these will be good things, some will not. They are a complex web of forces and this is not a Christian thing - it is a human thing!

As a Christian, stop a moment and ask yourself 2 questions:

• - Who am I becoming?
• - Am I being intentional about who I am becoming?

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect. - Romans 12:2

Do not be fooled here - there is NO middle ground! Either you ARE being conformed or transformed. All human beings change and evolve over time, as they gain different experiences. The problem is most of our spiritual formation is unintentional. Unless you are being intentional about it, it can be so subtle or invasive that you don't realize it is happening. No one sets out to become bitter, angry, greedy, judgmental or fearful, it just happens.

Can you name the forces in your life that are forming or deforming you? How we become who we become is a sacred mystery of the human soul that neither science nor philosophy can fully explain. But the level of agreement is that we are formed by 6 forces, the first 4 are more active effected by what we do. The last 2, are more passive, about what is done to us.

1. Habits: What we do, we become! Reading the news, scrolling on social media, going to the gym, the things we do effect us, they slowly shape who we become. Its easy to think we are just watching Netflix or reading email late at night or shopping for something we think we want or need, but at the same time without realizing it, we turn our souls in a particular direction, we are becoming a type of person.
2. Relationships: Peer pressure, particularly obvious among teens, but true for us all, we are often influenced by our family and friends, dress like them, talk like them, vote like them, spend money on the same or similar things.
3. Stories we believe: God wired the human brain to search for meaning, we all have our own stories, but this is also why we love movies, novels and stories of all kinds. I think of a character in a favorite novel, a young master thief who could be stopped in his tracks, mid-burgle, with the phrase, "Once upon a time". They influence what we think the "Good Life" is, what will make us "Happy", and even what we think is the meaning and purpose of life. They shape us far more than we realize. The ones we determine to be true, shape the kind of people we become. e.g. Hollywood have a lot to answer for when it comes to broken marriages and families because they have fostered the wrong ideas about what marriage is and should be.
4. Environment: Those stories all come from an environment whether you live is a small town or a large city, a secular background or a traditional religious environment, we all are influenced by the place we live and also now by the global world on the internet, our comfortable home on the internet may be good or bad but it is! In this increasingly digital world it is not practical to deny it. Turning it off and never picking up a device or turning on a TV again, may be the option for a monk in a monastery but is not practical for most of us.
5. These forces all work on us slowly over TIME, they sneak up on us little by little and have a cumulative effect. We wake up one day and realize we have changed.
6. We are also deeply changed by what is done TO US - EXPERIENCE. Our family of Origin, marriage, divorce and trauma's all deeply shape who we have become!

So WHO or WHAT are you becoming? Close your eyes a moment and project yourself 5-10 years ahead and if you don't like what you see - now is the time for a change of direction with God's help!