February 26, 2008

February 26, 2008

Is honesty something we extend exclusively to others, or does it apply to each of us individually and personally? I read a statement years ago that posed the question, “Can a person really be trustworthy if they are not true to themselves?” I don’t remember who said it, but it has stuck with me through the years and the question became a part of my decision making process. Let’s go a little deeper here now that I’ve got you thinking. Who are you are at the core of your being? What are your foundational values as a person? What do you really believe about life, people, and even God for that matter? Until you know who you are and what you believe, how could you possibly be true to yourself?

I have had a workshop going in my own home for over twenty-two years. The purpose of the lab was unknown to me in the beginning. The day it started, without my specific consent, I was informed by someone else that I had to administrate the process. I entered it unprepared and uncommitted. No one briefed me on the scope of the project. The workshop expanded to three times the original size and the cost associated with managing it were astronomical! Most days I felt overwhelmed, understaffed, and completely helpless with the day to day production. But the one thing I was forced to accomplish was to find out who I am, and what I believe. That workshop was my three beautiful children who have taught me more about life than anything else in this world.

This past year I reached the “half-way to ninety” point of my life. Maybe I am just a slow learner, but I have finally been able to identify my core being, and quantify the level of honesty I am offering myself on a day-today basis. As a Pastor, the most significant source of frustration I see people struggle with is found in not being able to identify who they are and what they believe. Let me just ask you now, “Who are you?” Not what you do! Not what you have accomplished! Not even what you are expected to be by others! Who are you? What is at the core of your being? What do you live for? What would you die for? Today I want to help you recognize what that nagging emptiness within you is.

You were created a living soul and your soul is crying out for access into your world. Your soul does not have an ego. It is not screaming for release to take over your comfortable life with wild and totally outlandish expectations. Your soul continues to call you to who you truly are. You are not what yo u do. You are something far more complex than you may have previously understood. You are the workmanship of God. He designed you for an earthly purpose with eternal values. You will never be true to yourself until you can be honest about how incomplete you are. It is the areas of your life which are incomplete that require the most attention from your subconscious. The depth of who you are can only be ignored with activity and function that dominate your mental processes. You must stay extremely busy to consistently disregard the cry of your soul. But even then, eventually you will answer the call of your soul, or disassociate yourself with that inner reality through illicit substances or actions. We have clever words for this process in our society; breakdown; addiction; disorder; dysfunction; the list is growing daily.

Over the past few months I have been attempting to pay close attention to conversations and dialogue between myself and others, and even third party exchanges that I listen to. I wanted to observe a pattern I began to notice. People are not listening to each other; they are simply recycling their personal rhetoric in a mindless rote. It is absolutely alarming the tremendous percentage of the people in those discussions who are not actually listening to the other person when that person speaks. They actually use the pause in their own voice to load the next file of stored opinions, or what they will say next-not to hear the other dialogue. I believe this is a symptom of the skill we have acquired through modern media to carry on multiple exchanges without ever answering the voice of our spirit within. Eventually, your soul will demand to be heard. Even if that appointment requires the cancelling of all other associations in our lives, each of us has a destined date with the soul within us. Because your soul is the breath of God, your spirit will inhale and exhale the divine possibility you were created to be, regardless of the controls and restraints we have become so adept at administering.

I want to challenge you today to do something completely unexplainable. Just stop. Don’t ask why, or for what reason, or for how long, just stop. Where ever you are right now at this exact moment, simply let all of the gears that turn your mechanized world and systems of acceptance grind to a halt. Take a deep breath. Spiritually inhale and exhale. Listen. Can you hear it? It is the voice of your Creator within you softly speaking your name. Keep listening. Listen to how your name is being said. What is that longing so sadly resident in that voice that is whispering your name? It is the desire to be answered. Answer the voice of God speaking from within you now by calmly saying, “Yes!” The affirmation you just spoke was not for approval or acceptance. You just said “yes” to what God created you to be. You have just touched the core of who you are. Honestly, that’s who you are; an amazing, wonderful, powerful life force displayed for God’s glory and anointed with Kingdom purpose.

Make a note of these miracles that have already begun to work in your life and be aware as they unfold daily before you. From this point forward you will begin to see a realignment of the world around you as parallel destinies that have been unable to reach you, converge with your core being. Depression will no longer have the ability to suppress the voice of the spirit you have identified. Physical manifestations of spiritual deficits will begin to diminish as you grow into your true self. Divine Order will become more and more visible to you each time you acknowledge the voice of the spirit within you. You will never be the same.

Don’t look back. There is nothing back there but questions; questions that have no answers; faceless people who hurt us, or were victims of our process. It is unfortunate that the by-product of our human search is carnage and causality. The wages of sin have always been death. But you are moving from death to life. Everything you are to be is before you. Get in the habit of stopping and listening. The real world is waiting for you to be honest with yourself. The real world, the world of the spirit. The world where you know, as you are known. Listen. There is a deep call coming to you today, simply say yes.