Entry #17 Do You Know Who You Are?

SoulCravings, Erwin Mcmanus

There may be no greater proof of God than the power of community. There may be no greater gift than a place to belong. While it may seem that you're selling out to admit that you need people, the irony is that you'll never really know yourself until you're in a healthy community. We only truly come to know ourselves in the context of others. The more isolated and disconnected we are, the more shattered and distorted our self-identity.

When we live outside of healthy community, we not only lose others, but we lose ourselves. Sometimes the most irrational things we do are in response to our lack of identity or to our pursuit of a sense of identity. When we don't know who we are, when we have no clue as to who we were meant to become, we try to become something that we are not. Who we understand ourselves to be is dramatically affected for better or worse by those we hold closest to us. Sometimes that can even be someone we've never really even known.

Also, our ability to know ourselves is dramatically diminished when we do not know our God and Father. Ironically, even if you do not believe in God, your life may be more shaped by your lack of relationship to Him than any other relationship in your life. Of this I'm convinced.

This is pretty funny...

This short video contains the five (hard) core values of the Church most of us attend:

http://mosaic.org/2007/01/
11/our-five-core-values/



www.mosaic.org

The one, the only Kahlil Gibran

On Love

Then said Almitra, "Speak to us of Love."
And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

"When love beckons to you follow him,
Though his ways are hard and steep.
And when his wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he speaks to you believe in him,
Though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.
Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,
So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes you to make you naked.
He sifts you to free you from your husks.
He grinds you to whiteness.
He kneads you until you are pliant;
And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God's sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's threshing-floor,
Into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfil itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips."


Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

Inspirational

A Look at an Autistic Savant's Brilliant Mind

If not a little hard to believe, this is pretty inspiring to hear what the human mind is capable of doing:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6860157

Excerpt from his book about how he envisions numbers in his mind:
http://www.npr.org/documents/2007/jan/Blueday.pdf

A Manifesto (on Travel)

A Manifesto
I travel because I believe and want to know that there are places outside of this one.

I travel because sometimes, when I’m wise, I return with a greater appreciation for home and a more intense longing to go again in the near future. It’s a beautiful cycle.

I travel because one day, God said to Abram, go, leave your home and I’ll take you to another land; make you into a great nation so that you can bless others.

I travel because in my heart of hearts I fear it; the strange locale and scenery, the inconvenience and confusion; the waiting, the misunderstanding, the lost luggage, the stolen wallet, the toilet conditions.

I travel because despite of myself sometimes I need to leave this comfort zone, this routine, to feel like I’m human – able to move, connect, improvise, lose and find, rise and fall, help and be helped. Life’s too short to only know what you know.

I travel because it reminds me I need God.

I travel because I hear there’s a hole-in-the-wall that makes the greatest fried chicken in the world. I also hear the guy across town channels Coltrane and his wife sings like she’s part angel.

I travel because beauty is worth the distance. And the money.

I travel because people are fascinating. They are so different yet so similar.

I travel because I want to be rich.

Posted by Faetryn... check out more on Faetryn's blog at: http://faetryntravels.blogspot.com/

Poet, Intellectual Giant, American; Emerson

"Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string." -Emerson, 1841

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,--that is genius." -Emerson, Self Reliance

Don't know if you saw "Night at the Museum" with Ben Stiller and Robin Williams lately, but I loved it! Beyond the humor was a story about finding one's strength and believing in one's greatness and place in the world. Don't know about you but it excites me to know that this is an extremely universal theme. Ralph Waldo Emerson in the early 1800's blew America away with this type of thinking, and was shunned by the University and the Church alike.

I recommend taking a look at his essay "Self Reliance"!

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/14.htm

You can download free Emerson essay podcasts on Itunes. Would love to hear how this strikes you!

Living What You Do Every Day

From NPR: This I Believe

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6431548

"I believe in being what I am instead of what sounds good to the rest of the world..."

Ever thought about Jesus as a pre-teen?

From This American Life

Act Three. My So-Called Jesus. Heather O'Neill reflects on what it would mean to be the savior of all mankind, but still in middle school. (13 minutes)

http://www.thislife.org/pages/descriptions/05/305.html


Click on the blue speaker icon on the left side of the page and start playing at around 23:00

Love is The Movement

"Love Is The Movement"
Song and lyrics by Switchfoot

A day in LA
And millions of faces
Are looking for movement
Cause everything's stuck
And everything's frozen
And everyone's broken
And nobody moves
And everybody's scared
That the motion will never come

This is the incompletion
Stuck in a line

Love is the movement
Love is a revolution
This is redemption
We don't have to slow back down

The stars are alive
They dance to the music
Of the deepest emotion
And all of the world
Is singing in time
As the heavens are caving in
Mysterious ways
Why God gave His life
To put motion inside my soul

It's bigger than cold religion
It's bigger than life

We're starting now
We don't have to slow back down

This is a revolutioin

Get up, get up
Love is moving you now

Hawaii/Paris by Jose @ UCLA

"A vacuum of love" a clip from SoulCravings by Erwin McManus

------
Entry #14 "A Vacuum of love" (abridged)

In our own way we are all trying to find our tribe. When Jesus was asked what the most important commandment is, His response was simple and straightforward: "You are to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." And then He added, "And you must love your neighbor as yourself."

It seems Jesus simply couldn't restrain Himself to one commandment, but gave His inquirers two of them. Maybe it's because He couldn't separate the effect that connecting to God would have on your relationship to people. Really, Jesus is saying that the most important relationship to God is love. Love, it seems, has two arenas where it's played out- in our relationship with God and in our relationship with people.

What's on God's heart is not a list of rules or commands, but the expansion of love... All God wants for us in this is that we live in healthy, loving relationships.

At first glance this would seem pretty easy, yet life experience tells us that this may be the most difficult task we've ever been called to, which is why the order of the Great Commandment is not incidental but absolutely critical. When we live in an intimate relationship with God, we are able to love ourselves and become passionate about loving others. When we are disconnected from God, we find ourselves increasingly empty on love. Jesus, it seems, is certain that the more you love God, the more you will love people.

A hurt person's life is not the story of one person journeying in isolation. Their quest, like so many of ours, is a search for belonging. Their story began with a painful realization that those who are supposed to love us the most often hurt us the worst. The dark side of human community can lead us to give up on God or to recognize he is exactly what we need most. When people hurt us, we blame God. We wonder why God would allow such horrible things to happen.

We wrongly conclude that God is indifferent to our pain and suffering. Many of us give up on love because those who were supposed to love us never came through.

You don't have to be a genius to know that a mother is supposed to love her daughter; a father his son; that children are intended to be born into a world of doting parents who love their children as if they've received the world's most extraordinary gift. If you need evidence that something is broken in the human spirit, just look carefully here. There's something wrong with us when we cannot love even those who are our flesh and blood.There's something desperately wrong with us when we find ourselves experiencing animosity or, at best indifference, toward the ones we should be sharing intimacy.

Yet many of us grow up in a vacuum of love, and it doesn't have to be abusive for this to be true. I know way too many people who have grown up with responsible parents who were entirely unresponsive. Some of the adults who have the most difficult time with love are the ones who were given everything they ever wanted as kids except love. There is no substitute for warmth, affection, and intimacy. The truth is, we were designed for relationship, and when our relationships don't work, they affect how we see God, how we relate to God, and even whether we will believe in him. We are born to belong, we are created for connection, and whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we spend our whole lives trying to fit in, get in, and stay in. It almost doesn't even matter what "in" is; we just want to belong somewhere.

http://www.awakenhumanity.org/

Your past and present hold the key to your future, by Jeffrey Gitomer

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Where are you going?

No, I don't mean where are you going on your next appointment. I don't mean where are you going out to dinner. And I don't mean where are you going when you get to the mall. I'm asking: Where are you going in life? That's a pretty big question because it's about your future.

Did you miss your quota last month? Last year? How come? Blaming it on the economy again? Blaming it on the competition again? What is a quota anyway? A quota is a goal that someone else sets for you. I'm asking: What have you set for yourself? When someone gives you a quota, why not double it? That way you'll make the number with ease. It's all in how you look at things.

Guess what? You create barriers or you jump over them.

Once a year I try to predict the future. I do it on the anniversary of the beginning of my writing career. This week marks my thirteenth anniversary. It's always a cause for deep reflection because writing and being published is the fulcrum point of my success. It's not only about how I've made a name for myself, it's also about the legacy that I will leave salespeople worldwide—and, of course, my children and grandchildren.

Writing is about more than creating new sales information each week that salespeople like you can benefit from. It's about being self-disciplined so I can clarify my own ideas, which form the basis for the speeches that I give and the books that I write.

If you really want to know where you're going, you have to understand where you've been and recognize where you are. Where you've been, or the past, provides you with knowledge and experiences, successes and failures, as well as opportunities and obstacles. Where you are, or the present, is what happened during the past 30 days, what's happening today, as well as what's going to happen within the next 30 days. Where you'll be, or the future, is a combination of your experience, your being open to opportunity, your goals and dreams, your tolerance for risk, as well as your determination and focus.

Let me clarify that and break it down into 3.5 easy-to-digest categories.
1. Once was.
2. As is.
3. Can be.
3.5 Become.


Once was is the history of your life. It's the sum total of your knowledge, your wisdom, your experience, your victories, and your defeats. If you look closely at the history of your life, you can see some things that you wanted with all your heart but you didn't get. At the time you were devastated, but in retrospect it seems silly that you ever wanted those things. You can also see some things that you were given or that you earned, but once you got them, you quickly lost interest. More important, you see the things you loved and how they have affected you. You look at the risks you took and think that if you had the opportunity to take them again, you might not. And all of that brings you to as is.

As is is where you are today. Are you where you want to be? Are you happy with your lot in life? Are you blaming your lack of success on someone else? Have you found what you are looking for? Do you even know what it is?

Some of us haven't found what we are looking for, but that doesn't mean to stop looking. I didn't start writing until I was forty-five years old. If you're younger than that and you start writing tomorrow, in 13 years you'll be ahead of me.

I'm teaching my granddaughter to write. She'll be 50 years ahead of me.

As is provides you with your greatest single opportunity. It's about how you decide to invest your time and money. The time to take action is now. The time to risk is now. The time to go for what you want is now. The time to educate yourself and study is now. If you do, you may be able to achieve the success you are looking for later.

Many people think that once they're done with high school or college, they're essentially done studying. That may be OK if your closing question is: Will that be paper or plastic?

Success doesn't just show up in the now. Success comes as a result of hard work and focus in the now. But that elusive brass ring you are looking for lies within. It's the can be.

Can be is full of dreams, full of goals, and full of serendipity. Some things are not goals. Some things just evolve. And in that evolution, you can find what you really love. If you love something, you don't have to make it a goal. Instead, you just work your butt off, and it becomes reality.

What you can be is going to be a result of your hard work, your positive attitude, your passion, your focus on achievement, and your drive to not let little things stand in your way—even if it means risking what you've got.

Many people in their struggle will come to me and say, "Jeffrey, you don't understand." And then they go on to say something about their personal situation, their money, their spouse, or their kids.

I understand fine. People are afraid to risk what they have in order to go for what they really want. The worst part of not risking is lamenting. Lamenting that you didn't try it, that you didn't go for it, or that you should have done it.

Maybe it's time to read or watch The Wizard of Oz again and see how it relates to your life. Remember what Dorothy's companions were searching for? Courage, brains, and heart. You've always known the formula—you just haven't used it. And with very few exceptions, you're not in Kansas anymore.

And when you combine once was, as is, and can be, the sum of that is what you will become . One of the most valuable lessons I have ever learned was from a friend, Dr. Paul Homoly, who said to me, "Make all decisions based on the person you would like to become." That wisdom is so powerful that I think of it everyday. It's been a big part of my success. Perhaps you can use it in your quest to be your best.

Let me throw some words at you. Educate yourself, try your best, risk failure, seize the opportunity, develop self-discipline, dedicate yourself to becoming a winner, and make a commitment that it's for you first and everybody else second.

It's not a formula—it's a philosophy. And philosophy is the secret to getting you from where you are to where you want to be.

I wish you a safe, fun, successful journey. Keep me posted.

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Sales Bible and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless, is the President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer. Check his great website out at www.gitomer.com!