Sunday, December 25, 2011

Live From the Heart: Steve Jobs, You Are Already Naked

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, passed away this year.  At the time Brene Brown shared a link to a speech Steve had given at a Stanford Graduation ceremony.



Steve is eloquent in his message. He needs no paraphrase. But his words caused me to reflect on so many things!

Steve dropped out of college but he hung around to learn.

I find this so inspiring since most of my life my sense of duty has stifled my joy in learning. I've mostly been  too concerned about doing what I perceived was 'good', passing the exam and making people proud to truly embrace the joy of expanding my mind and my horizons.

I landed at university, with one of the highest OP scores possible and an absolute bundle of emotional hang-ups. I immediately felt so intimidated by an environment seemingly full of incredibly smart, together and worldly people that I forgot that I actually seemed to do quite well with my own brain before then. I was so overwhelmed that I coped out and rebelled.

My allegiance to the call of 'doing what I think is expected of me' remained intact enough to keep me passing my courses but I skipped lectures, partied (far too hard) and tried desperately to avoid my extreme sense of insecurity about my brain and my worth by delaying all study to the very last minute.

My joy at learning often popped up during that final week of cramming when I would discover course content for the first time. My fascination for physiology, child development and the miraculous powers of healing and repair inherent in the human body had only minutes to be savoured before they were overshadowed by my intense panic at the lack of time to memorise these wonders and the terror of failure, which would cement in me the belief I was so desperately trying to avoid - 'That I'm just not good enough to acheive anything in life.'

Steve did it so differently and his story opens my heart a little to my grief at how much my own hang-ups have prevented my child-like interest in discovering new things.

By staying open to learning for its sheer enjoyment Steve stayed connected to his soul and his story highlights the benefits of trusting the wisdom of your soul's passions (even if you don't quite know where they will lead you!)

When he dropped-in on a calligraphy course Steve had no idea how his fascination for the art would fit into his future life or career. He just did it because he loved it. Later his knowledge of calligraphy would prove to be extremely helpful in his lucrative career. But when he attended the course he neither knew this nor cared. He simply followed his passion.

I find that God is teaching us this lesson constantly. He can reach us when we live in our souls - that passionate, creative, desirous part of our selves. 

When we live in our soulful place He can Love us, Inspire us, and also Correct our errors far more rapidly. But when we hang back, always trying to get it right, to be perfect to figure it out before we begin, we lock up possibility, change and growth. 

Trusting our passions and following them towards a destination we can't see right now can feel risky, and sometimes crazy, but Steve's example demonstrates how beautiful the process can really be.

Steve simply suggests "Find what you love and do it" 
As I've mentioned my own life has most often lacked this kind of simplicity. Instead its looked something like this:

Find what I love -> Try to get everyone else to love it or at least approve of it before I'll really go for 'it' -> Worry that I'm not good enough to succeed at 'it' anyway -> Try to find a small achievable version of 'it' so I'll be 'safe' while I try to live a happy life -> Worry (some more) that no-one will get me or 'it' and I'll end up all alone  -> Agonize  that I really want to do 'it' but I'm just not capable or good enough and so on and on... you get the picture..

I see now that there is so much power in simply doing 'it'. Yes, sometimes my fears will be realized, it may not go perfectly, but I will be engaged in a thing I love. 

And besides, there is nothing like facing a few fears to change our perspective and help us grow!

All of my anxiety, self doubt and need for approval has limited my life so much. I have wanted to be perfect before I began (mainly so I could hold onto the false idea that that way everyone would still 'love' me).

Now it feels like such a waste!
 
So as this new year approaches, I'm trying a new tack. I'm finding what I love and charging towards it, full of the knowledge that this way God is going to reveal to me both my errors and strengths. So far its hair-raising but also, in sweet moments, breath-taking in its beauty.

As Steve suggests "You are already naked"

This past year I've focussed much prayer on a desire to become more real. But honestly I've still been grappling with the 'good girl' facade I've worn (with varying degrees of success) for most of my life. Its been tough to let go and see how much of 'me' I've generated in order to feel safe and 'loved'.

What I've learned is that the biggest thing I've lost through investing in how I'm viewed, in trying hard to be liked, is my connection to myself.  

What I have perceived as the worst thing there is to loose, i.e. the approval of others, has caused me to loose my own perspective, my knowledge of myself and what I love and want. My life has been crowded with the desires of others and none of my own.

I've come to see that living emotionally 'naked' takes courage (at least for me) but that it is so, so worth it. There is rest to be found once we step off the fast-paced treadmill of always trying to maintain a facade. 

To me living 'naked' means no longer denying my desires and dreams in an attempt to avoid shame, fear or rejection. It means honouring my feelings and my self in my relationships with others, not suppressing them in order to make everyone happy or to avoid my own fears and embarrassment. 

In a naked life I am unapologetic in living in a way that I believe in. I don't shy away from my hopes or disappointments. I don't hide my light under a bushel, nor do I make out I'm prettier/ more accomplished/ more together/ wiser than I really am. 

The truth is that we are already naked in the eyes of the One Who Made us. There is no point in hiding who we are or what we really want.  Entering a relationship with Him requires our humility, our willingness to be 'naked'. For only when we see ourselves as we truly are, in our truth and error, can we be Shown a way to grow towards Him once again. 

Bless you Steve, may your adventures in the spirit world (where we are indeed naked) be rewarding and full of new invention!

Friday, December 23, 2011

The Gifts of Truth


I’ve been feeling inspired lately, recognising that

Change is possible

There is a quiet joy and celebration in me, as I notice “Wow, I’m different”
These are little changes, but they inspire me forward.
I am steeped in the quiet knowledge that

Courage is required if we are to truly Change

This quiet mantra is with me now. Not as an overbearing demand “You must change! You must grow!”
The cries of “If you don’t grow you aren’t worthy, if you’re not perfect noone will love you!” that have plagued me in the past are gone or fading.

Instead there is desire to change and grow. A deeper knowledge of Grace. And an understanding that

When we live in fear we loose sight of change

When we substitute fear for Truth in our lives, fear becomes our ruler, it restricts us, controls us, and limits our capacity to change. In fact fear screams at us “It’s not possible!” and without Truth we have nothing to combat the command.

I can see that the changes in me are only happening because I am growing a sincere desire to not only receive Truth about all things in my life, but also the willingness to live in Truth and to honour Truth at all times. This is where the courage bit really comes in!

But as always, when we step into more harmony with God, there are gifts.

I am finding, through my living and not just my thinking, that

One of the gifts of Truth is trust.

When a person is loyal to Truth – always and no-matter-what – the people around them can trust their word and their actions. A gift is born – the gift of closer bonds and deeper intimacy.

When I have the courage to live in Truth I literally feel the warms of God’s Love and Laws supporting me. Our relationship – the magic connection between me and my Creator (how humbling it is) – can truly commence. It is enabled by my willingness to acknowledge that it is He, not I, that controls how this Universe and the course of my life runs.

Fear, that harsh tyrant, would have me believe that I must control and protect every aspect of myself and my life, or all will be lost. This position places me, not only in opposition with all of the Loving Laws that God has created to guide me home to Him and who I truly am. But it also, in its arrogance, says that I must be the creator of who I am and what I become.

The Truth is something far more magical.

The Truth is that a Greater Hand than mine created me. He imprinted within me the design for a creature that I, in my current fear bound state, cannot even imagine. I must only surrender to His Love and Laws to enable the more beautiful, creative and loving creature to be born. 

Or it would be truer to say

I allow myself to be born again.

All of this grows, this trust in my Father, the deeper intimacy in my relationships, through my honour of Truth and thus my refusal to accept fear as my ruler.

Trust can only grow as we live in Truth.

In this season when there is such an emphasis on ‘gifts’ my wish for you, dear reader, is that you may begin to receive the gifts that Truth can bring to your life and to know that all things are possible with the One Who Loves the most.