I wonder if this thought resonates with you at all; in recent days I feel as though the Spirit has been prompting me to dare to possess that which is in my posession; that is to be the fullness of who God made me to be. 

I know that for  many, the great fear we harbour is that we may be inadequate where somehow, we might not make it.  Here, more than anywhere else, the need for good spiritual parenting is paramount.  There must be those who can say to us, I believe in you You can make it and Let me show you how this is integral to the point of the church.  At the same time, there is the equal and opposite dilemma where rather than having a fear of failure, we fear success and that fear not only blocks our freedom, worse still, it blocks others.  This is a thought captured in the inaugural speech of President Nelson Mandela in 1994

WHO AM I TO BE BRILLIANT?

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.  Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.  It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.  We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant?   Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God.  Your playing small does not serve the world.  There is nothing enlightened about your shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you.  We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.  It is not just in some of us.  It is in everyone.  And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.  As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

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As I have often said, there was a time when God would speak to the world through the church.  In more recent years, He has begun to speak to the church through the world.   The musical The Lion King [my favourite show of all time] provides us with an excellent example this.  The penultimate song, He Lives In You [Reprise] is a profound exposition of the apostle Paul s mystery Gospel [Col 1:27].

The song is sung by Rakifi, the guide to the disconsolate Simba, who is mourning the death of his father who had been killed be the usurper Scar the evil lion.  The song triggers Simba s moment of revelatory self-discovery, where purpose and destiny collide as he sees for the first time his real identity.  Have a read of the lyrics. More > I would love to hear from you if you if you can think of other examples of the mystery being proclaimed through the arts.

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' There is no failiure here sweetheart, even if you quit' - Bono (taken from a track on U2's latest CD)

The best thing I ever did FOR God was fail - crash and burnout ...I simply fell into Him and let Him do the living..

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I don t know about you but I am a little wearied by all this talk about purpose; it all smacks to me a bit too much of self-improvement and the Christian obsession with doing and not simply being; have we forgotten that we are Spirit led not purpose driven people.    When did it become the case that what we do defined who we are; surely who we are defines what we do.? 

Since the world seems to talk a lot more sense than the church these days I thought that we might borrow a line or two from Dr Zhivago on identity and purpose:

Well, what are you?  What is it about you that you have always known yourself?  What are you conscious of in yourself: your kidneys, your liver your blood vessels? No. However, far back you go in your memory it is always the external manifestation of yourself where you come across your identity: In the work of your hands, in your family, in other people. And now, listen carefully. You in others this is what you are; this is what your consciousness has breathed and lived on, and enjoyed throughout your life, your soul, your immortality your life in others.

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