Phil recently recorded a podcast episode called The Burden of Becoming, which we’ve included here for you. This post dives deeper into the questions we can ask God as we journey with him in spiritual formation. Remember, it’s not so important to focus on where we are going as it is to focus on who we are becoming.
In biblical narratives, the process of character formation often pivots on a single, raw question directed at God. When characters are stripped of their comfort zones and forced to confront their identity and future, their questions shift from “What should I do?” to “Who am I becoming?”
Here are four powerful biblical references where key figures asked profound questions that shaped their formation process.
1. Moses: The Question of Inadequacy
The Reference: Exodus 3:11
“But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?’”
- The Formation Context: Moses spent forty years as a prince in Egypt, followed by forty years as an anonymous shepherd in the wilderness. When God called him from the burning bush, his identity was completely fractured. He no longer knew where he belonged.
- The “Becoming” Dynamic: Moses’ question, “Who am I?”, marks the exact moment he had to transition from a hiding shepherd to a nation-shaping leader. God’s response didn’t list Moses’ credentials; instead, God promised, “I will be with you.” Moses had to learn that who he was becoming was entirely tethered to who God was.
2. David: The Question of Astonishment
The Reference: 2 Samuel 7:18
“Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and said, ‘Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?’”
- The Formation Context: David had just been promised an eternal dynasty by God through the prophet Nathan. Sitting in the presence of God, David looked back at his trajectory from a forgotten youngest brother in a sheep pasture to the king of Israel.
- The “Becoming” Dynamic: This is a question of identity wrestling with sudden elevation. David was asking, “Who am I becoming that you would trust me with this legacy?” It forced David to ground his identity in humility rather than royal pride, framing his life not as a self-made success story, but as an act of divine positioning.
3. Gideon: The Question of Identity vs. Reality
The Reference: Judges 6:15
“And he said to him, ‘Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’”
- The Formation Context: Israel was under brutal oppression by the Midianites, and Gideon was secretly threshing wheat in a winepress out of fear. The Angel of the Lord appeared and addressed him as a “mighty man of valor”—a title that completely contradicted Gideon’s current reality.
- The “Becoming” Dynamic: Gideon’s question is a defensive reaction to a vision of himself that he couldn’t yet see. He was asking how someone defined by weakness could become a deliverer. His formation required a radical shift in self-perception: he had to stop identifying as a victim of his circumstances and start acting as the leader God called him to be.
4. Job: The Question of Cosmic Insignificance
The Reference: Job 7:17–18
“What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment?”
- The Formation Context: Job had lost his wealth, his children, and his health. In the depths of his agonizing suffering, he challenged God, twisting the words of the traditional Hebrew psalms of praise into a raw cry of pain.
- The “Becoming” Dynamic: While David asked a similar question in wonder, Job asked it in frustration. Suffering forced Job to re-examine what it truly means to be a human being in relation to God. Through this brutal formation process, Job transformed from someone who merely followed religious rules into someone who possessed a deep, unshakeable, firsthand relational intimacy with the Creator.
The Common Thread: In every instance, these questions arose when a character’s old identity was no longer sufficient for the future God was pulling them into. The question “Who am I?” served as the doorway to their transformation.
