There are so many wonderful distractions in our world, and step two as I see it in this moment, toward realizing our Divine Potential is to grapple with all those things that come along and pull us in every direction except the ones that will lead to that realization.
One of those distractions is the stories we tell ourselves about what’s possible and who we are. It’s a very convincing distraction because many of us, myself included, have given up over and over on the very idea of being able to live a life that is fully immersed and fully committed to that thing in our hearts that make us feel fully alive, that feels so impossible. Yet, it keeps coming up, keeps calling to us no matter how often we let it go.
When I consider that longing in my heart and let myself feel deeply into it, I am aware that I have misread the call in a number of ways over my lifetime, ways which led me to disappointment and frustration and discouragement. I have come to realize however that every dead-end path I trod upon was important in guiding me to the true path I have been searching for. I know with every fibre of my being the things that didn’t work which has helped me clarify which direction I need to be focussed on.
True commitment to the path of realizing our potential entails having to say no to what doesn’t fit. Using my friend Jesus as my example again, read Matthew 4 where Jesus goes to the wilderness for forty days and forty nights after his baptism and in the end is tempted to forfeit his true path with ideas of earthly wealth and power but he is clear, that isn’t it for him, he isn’t here to squander his Divine Potential on acquiring stuff and having power over others, those are dead-end paths. He knew he was here to wake people up to their Divine Potential, to serve God, not the smallness of fearful self-interest. He saw the bigger picture and chose that.
I think of all the times I didn’t look for the bigger picture and chose to serve my fears rather than my Divine Nature and I can get kind of sad for a moment but then I see that no matter how often I’ve fallen short, the call is still there and I am still able to chose again to serve the higher call. That is amazing to me.
It’s never too late to awaken to the truth of our being when that is what we are called to. It fills my heart with gratitude!
Namaste
