This morning, I read an article as to why God refers to Himself as “I Am,” with Moses. The article hits at something I never put together before (I’m brandishing my dunce’s cap right now):

He can only refer to Himself in comparison to Himself because He is unlike anything else ever created.

Also, this part: “He never became, nor is he becoming—he simply is.”

Woah.

Yesterday, I was listening to this podcast and the second caller was like my college self calling in. This woman became a hermit in college (something I had started to do before transferring schools) after severe panic attacks. She lost her friends, and her school (a small private, “Christian” school) told her to, and I quote, “pray it off.”

Insert extremely disappointed face here.

This is the thing about us followers. We are becoming. And one of the things about becoming is getting back to the root of what’s true:

We are to be in fellowship with our fellow brothers and sisters, and we need to allow God’s Word to penetrate our hearts so if one of us is believing Satan’s lies, we can walk with that person back into God’s beautiful light.

Mental health issues are real. Christians do suffer from them (Satan stalks us, remember?). And there are a myriad of ways God uses to heal us (medicine, therapists, close friends and families, the testimonies of complete strangers…).

So prayer? It works, absolutely. It’s the gorgeous conversation between us “becomers” with the Great I Am. But part of that conversation is being open to how He chooses to prune and grow one of His children.

So yes, prayer is important. But us being willing to work in whatever capacity He desires for the sake of someone else?

That, my friends, is the ultimate definition of becoming.