Ever defeat something in your mind before you ever actually start it?
Okay, here’s your chance to put the last nail in the coffin and confirm for me that I’m a total schlub-failure. It’s very simple. All you have to do is testify that you’ve never defeated yourself before you’ve even begun something or just never started it at all because you’ve come to the conclusion that you’re just not up to it. If you can say definitively: “Yes, Doug, I’ve never done that” then I’ll take that as an affirmation of the true slime-ooze level at which I operate. My guess is though, that I’m more like you than different from you.
The Chainsmokers (who I’ve never heard of) and Coldplay (who I like and once upon a time had a CD of theirs, although I hid this fact from my buddies) have collaborated on “Something Just Like This” and sit atop the Billboards chart for Hot Dance/Electronic Songs this week. I’ll be honest and say I don’t find the song itself terribly compelling but the lyrics (here’s a link to them) give this old schlub some hope.
See, I think all of us come to the conclusion that we’re maybe not going to set the world on fire at some point. We’re maybe not going to make it to the Show or the League. Maybe we’re not going to always get straight A’s or the promotion or the corner office. Certainly the guy in this song has arrived at this conclusion but what he finds out is that even though he’s no superhero or god; he’s just what someone else is looking for in love. That’s really nothing big, bold, grand or complex which is good news for this guy and me, come to think of it.
No, what the woman wants from him is someone to turn to and someone to kiss. You might say that sounds too simple and it is but it’s all any of us are looking for, isn’t it? We want someone that we can rely on when we need something, anything really. We want someone we can love and I imagine it’s implied; someone who loves us in return. That’s it, end of story but we find it hard to understand that someone who could love us isn’t looking for a giant of an individual. But this sort of selection of the common man (or woman) has been going on for centuries.
Look at the choosing up of one of the most important teams of all time. Twelve disciples had to be selected to carry a message on once their captain was no longer in the picture. Who’d Jesus pick? Were they guys of the cloth so to speak? Nope, only one, Bartholomew, had any sort of royal or noble blood in his veins. Guys who were pillars of the community, well respected and revered? Hardly. Matthew was a tax collector, a guy known for bilking, cheating and strong-arming his own people out of money for his personal gain. Simon was a zealot and if you’re not sure of what that means, let’s just say you’d avoid him while he muttered to himself in the corner at the party. Maybe guys who were always in the pew on Sunday? Not even close. Seven, 60%, of his chosen ones were fisherman who probably spent their mornings off-loading fish, mending nets and hanging them to dry so they could head back out that night.
Nope these were guys that Jesus knew understood hard work. These were guys that despite their flaws and shortcomings could be trusted to carry on the work that their leader started under any sort of headwind. None of these guys had an “S” on their chest or a Bat Cave full of techno-gadgets and my guess is when they were tapped to join the team most of them probably said, “Who, me?” and yet they went.
So, whatever the relationship, whatever the task and whatever you think your limitations might be just know; you’re enough. We all ask those questions so don’t feel bad. Just remember the bigger questions are “Where’d you wanna go (and) How much you wanna risk?”
The Everyday Question: What are you telling yourself you can’t do today?
We spend a lot of time limiting ourselves, which is really too bad. If we’d do more diving in and less testing the water with our toe we might be pleasantly surprised.
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