It's All Fired Up

We’ve gone upward and inward – we’ve sought and found humility and authenticity. We are grounded and renewed. What now? Wasn’t that enough?

It’s now time to go outward. It’s time for practice and the creation and piloting of ritual. It’s time to get feedback on the sapling self. A renewed and humble approach to one’s goings on is not immediately normal or fully actualized. It needs right-sizing and dynamic revision that we must absorb and integrate without ego. Gaining our sea legs on a maiden voyage with a new vessel might require a few trips to the bow of the boat to discharge the food we are still eating that is not seaworthy.

On a practical front, this looks like setting long-range goals that require some first steps. Want to run the Boston marathon? Go buy some running shoes, change your diet, join a gym, and find a running buddy. You’re not across the finish line by any means, but you are making the first and proper steps toward that end.

Are you being led to a deeper relationship with God, your family, or even yourself? This does not just happen on its own. It requires time well spent. As I’ve said before: your time is worth spending well. To improve these relationships means intentional and undistracted time invested with the target of affection. Like getting ready for a big race, when your body gets sore, injured, and wants to give up, so too will any endeavor to deepen and strengthen a bond with another. God will humble you. Your spouse will need to forgive you. Your children will require patience beyond understanding.

Going outward is a step in faith that the renewed life into which you are living is no joke. You are willing to expose your humble and authentic self to the world. It means allowing the environment to respond to the renewed self. It does not, however, mean that you bend toward the world. Instead, you now shape your environment in ways that propel your outward step and momentum forward.