Take up your Sword!

"Have pity Lord, on we who seek out and dare to take up the sword that you have promised, and who are a saintly and sinful lot scattered throughout the world. Because we do not recognise even ourselves, and often think that we are dressed, but we are nude; we believe that we have committed a crime, when in reality we have saved someone's life. And do not forget in your pity for all of us that we hold the sword with the hand of an angel and the hand of a devil, and that they are both the same hand. Because we are of the world, and we continue to be of the world, and we have need of thee. We will always be in need of thy law that says,'When I sent you without money bag, knapsack and sandals, you lacked nothing.'"
                                                    'The Pilgrimage'  Paulo Coelho

Isn't it funny how one minute we feel quite puffed up in our pride and ego about something we did that we consider to be meaningful and in the next breath we are humble and denuded and again in ego, feeling undeserving of praise or recognition.

And isn't it funny how both of these dramas need pity.

Don't we need to pity the oppressor and the oppressed, the controller and the martyr, the boastful and the insecure, the obese and the anorexic, those who fear death and those who think they're immortal, those who save the world, but can't save their own lives and those who have triumphed in their own lives, but can't conquer the world.

Isn't there a bit of ourselves in each of these scenarios?

Why do we question our worth when we are so perfectly and wonderfully made in God's likeness. We lack nothing. There is nothing we need to say or do or be that we are not already.

All we have to be is "be".

I mean it is ludicrous to think that we are what we do, because then if we don't, we aren't.
And how silly to think we are what we wear, because if we don't wear anything, we aren't.

Just by getting up this morning and leaving timeously for work and not speeding you may have saved someone's life. Just by smiling at a stranger and passing them a compliment you may have prevented them from taking their own life.

How do we know whether that harsh word of biting criticism is not the very catalyst to cause a person to take action and better themselves or the contrary bury themselves alive.

We don't know!

But we do have to stop doubting ourselves and believe that we are exactly what and where we are supposed to be and that there is a cause and effect, universal oneness to which we are all entwined. Each and every action and reaction is a ripple effect which affects us all. We are not lone rangers. We are all vital players in this amazingly complex macrocosm.

What we must do is take up our swords unapologetically and be who we are!
The world is affected by our being
It is through our being wholly what we are (complete in ourselves) and a part of the whole (team players), that all of creation is.

And I too had to re read that a few times to understand the higher message.

wishing you a week of being exactly who you are
and reminding yourself frequently that your worth is pivotal in the greater scheme of things

love
Nicolette