Becoming

Something happens when we stop trying so hard and more fully pay attention.

In 2025, I posted daily a 500-word piece of devotional theology: 52 themes rooted in the character of God, shaped by grace, aimed at lived discipleship. It became a gift I didn't expect: not just words in my laptop notes, but a way of seeing, a rhythm of return, a practice of beholding.

After listening to wise pastoral voices, regular readers, and favourite writers, the direction became clear for 2026. Beholding and becoming: an apprenticeship style emphasis on gazing slowly at Jesus each day and being open to being changed into His likeness.

This isn't about trying harder. It's about learning to see rightly.

The depth of the Christian life circles this: we become what we behold… as captured in 2 Corinthians 3:18. Transformation happens not through grinding effort but through sustained attention. Christian formation is an apprenticeship of perception before it becomes a way of choice, courage, and love.

Beholding and becoming weaves together three streams:

• Beholding & becoming: contemplative attention, desire, love, formation.

• Apprenticing to the real Jesus: following Jesus as He actually is, not as cultural religion prefers Him to be.

• The way of holy courage: costly faithfulness, truth-telling, non-violent resistance, resilient hope.

Together, they offer a daily practice of truthful seeing, faithful staying, and courageous becoming. The year seeks to move through four possible spiritual movements, repeated at increasing depth across the seasons:

• Attention: learning to see.

• Attachment: learning to love.

• Apprenticeship: learning to live.

• Courage: learning to remain faithful under pressure.

Formation doesn't happen in a straight line. It spirals. We return to the same themes again and again, each time from a deeper place. The structure honours some of the Christian year: Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent… while also making space for facts and feelings, psychological, ethical, and vocational formation.

Q1 January–March: Learning to see… Awakening attention. Naming false images of God. Learning to see ourselves truthfully.

Q2 April–June: Learning to love… Re-ordering desire. Loving the risen Christ, God's presence within, neighbour and enemy.

Q3 July–September: Learning to walk… Apprenticeship in daily life. Vocation, work, community, limits. The slow faithfulness of ordinary days.

Q4 October–December: Learning to stay… Holy courage. Resistance, endurance, truth-telling. Faith under disappointment. Advent: the courage to hope again.

Every day includes a 350-word devotional, three takeaways, two actions, one action and a prayer line to go… Depth to get you going. Consistency without monotony… hopefully!

This isn't theory. It's a rule of life… a daily practice that shapes how we see, what we love, and how we live the beauty of the Christian faith. It's for anyone tired of grinding spirituality and hungry for transformation that feels like grace.

It's for those who want to follow Jesus as He actually is: not the domesticated version we've been handed. It's for people who know that courage isn't loud or heroic, but quiet and faithful… a willingness to stay when everything in us wants to run.

Beholding and becoming will be available daily, circa 7am GMT on Facebook, X-Twitter, and Instagram stories, accompanied by original photographs from Nathan Berry. The twelve-in-twelve incarnation resource will continue through to its finish at Epiphany: already used in lots of church and network settings with immense individual reach.

This is an invitation.

Not to achieve more, but to pay closer attention.

Not to manufacture change, but to open ourselves to it.

Not to follow a sanitised Jesus, but to apprentice ourselves to the real one: the one who leads us into truth, love, and holy courage.

We become what we behold.

So let's behold well.

Let's gaze long and slow at Jesus.

And let's see what happens when we do.