I'm more and more convinced that the godly life is more being than doing. There is work involved, but it's like working out. Everyone has muscles, we're just all at varying degrees of fitness. Obviously, the longer you sit on your butt, the less fit you become. If you don't ever push your muscles, they never get any stronger. If you're extremely unfit, it's going to take you longer to become fit, you have to put more effort into it. This makes it much more likely that you'll quit somewhere along the way, discouraged at the lack of progress. But if you're willing to hang in there, or if you have friends to encourage you along the way, it's easier to keep going, and as you see the changes in your body, it gets easier still. Once you're more physically fit, maintaining that fitness is way easier than attaining it ever was, but it is still required. If you become fit but then let it go, you'll end up gaining all the weight back and wind up right where you started.
As far as it relates to being and doing - people go on diets because they want to lose weight. They're doing something. But if they're not fit people, then when they stop dieting, they'll most likely gain the weight back. Or with all the skinny people that can eat anything they want and still fit into all their clothes, that doesn't necessarily mean that they're healthy or fit. You can act healthy or even look healthy without actually being healthy. On the other side, when you're working out and burning calories, etc, you're actually able to (and in some cases need to) take in more calories and carbs to be able to help you maintain your fitness level. Along with that, a lot of times you end up wanting to eat more healthy because your body knows what's better for you anyway, and if you just pay attention, you find that it craves the fruits and veggies and good things. If you become fit and start living healthy, then what you do usually starts reflecting that lifestyle, and even if something comes up and you indulge in what you really shouldn't, it makes less of an impact than it would if you weren't as healthy.
I'm sure the analogy breaks down somewhere, it just ocurred to me now so I went with it.