IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO THRIVE.
Complacency is the thief of authenticity.
You think, feel, believe--this is it. This is my life. This is just who I am. Might as well get used to it. Might as well make the best of it. However "making the best" in truth just means surviving. Surviving is not thriving.
Thriving can mean many things to you. It can mean x dollars in your bank account to do as you please and want. To thrive, in your mind, can mean finally looking a certain way, feeling a certain way, being a certain way. Thriving to you could be great travels, fearless wandering, and bold adventures. Thriving simply being able to have 20 minutes of uninterrupted you-time. You could believe thriving is found in someone else-being a good spouse or partner, being a good parent.
For Authentically Me, it means sobering up to the reality of my life--and doing something about it. It means taking the time to actually realize who I am-the good, the bad, the ugly. It means seeking council from trusted mentors and friends. It means letting go of what I cannot control. It means surrendering myself to Jesus, my original. It means processing realistic solutions for change. It means trying. It means doing. Sometimes I'm really successful--other times I crash and burn. Thriving to Authentically Me means being refined--even if it takes the rest of my life.
Fear is the enemy of authenticity.
Fear paralyzes us. Fear makes us complacent. Fear of the what ifs. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the answers. Fear of failing. Fear of being right back where you are. These fears are all understandable. You are beautifully broken and fragile, wounded and scared by experiences and people. Living and moving past these fears takes courage, resilience, a strength of character. It takes diving into and being okay with the unknown. Change takes blind bold trust in yourself, in others, and Jesus.
Truth is the weapon of authenticity.
Truth holds power. A living power greater than you will ever know. The hard part is we live so very easily on the lies that often times we cannot tell the difference. Lies look, feel like the truth sometimes. They masquerade as "our truths". They often sound like "I will never..." "I am just..." "If only I could...". Lies are soul-binding, debilitating, isolating, often times they set you on a path of self-gratification or self-mutilation. I spent 13 years believing "my truth" and another 5 years struggling to unbind myself from it. The only way to unbind yourself from a lie is to replace it with the truth, your real truth.
The process of becoming authentic should be freeing. It is appropriate to feel liberated as if you are taking your first breath into a new life. However it should not be self-centering or propel you into a self-obsessed life. "This is me just being me" is not what true authenticity is about...at all. Those are justification phrases not self-actualization phrases. Remember your "original"...being authentic is about becoming a carbon copy of an original. If your comparison, your original, is the world--you will look like the world. If it is another person--you will begin to look like that person. If it is an ideal, a movement, a way of being--you will emulate that for the rest of your life.
Authentically Me is rooted in the person of Jesus. His teachings while on this earth, his righteous character, his divine radical love is my original. True authenticity, an authenticity rooted in Jesus calls you to something greater. It beckons you to something more important than yourself, another person, even greater than a important cultural, political, environmental movement. Loving yourself is not the purpose of authenticity. It is a part of the process, a very important part of the process but not the true purpose. If you spend the rest of your life striving to love yourself or to find yourself...you missed the entire point. Loving others is the purpose of your authenticity. The irony of becoming authentic, of knowing yourself...is that it requires you to give of yourself.
If you are living authentically, your original being in the person of Jesus, you will be at peace. Of course you will not be at peace every second, the expectation can't be that you never feel chaotic or stressed or life-crazed. Of course you will feel it--but you recognize it, surrender it, and come back to peace. You know the truth of what is important, what is real, what your real purpose is. People will notice it, be confused by it, and want it for themselves. Like a moth to a flame, a parched person to a well...people will want what you have. They are stuck on the hamster wheel of life working so hard to be satisfied and getting absolutely nowhere. Not everyone will ask, approach you or even voice this desire, but it'll be branded in their mind. They often will wonder why you were so different. Why were you, despite the storm around you, at peace? How could you move past their same fear? Why oh why do you feel complete, whole, confident?
You know the truth. You posses the truth. You are refined by it. You strive to live it. This truth, peace, your authenticity based on the original of Jesus...sets you apart. You thrive. Not by the world's standards but by His.
-Authentically Me (after reaching the summit)
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