Trust In Your Sound…

I’m not sure if you watched the Grammy’s last night, but there was this beautiful 80 second segment aired by Spotify designed to encourage young artists to trust their own sound. So many young artists began so soon because they trusted their inner voice more than a whole world that said otherwise. Arrested by the moment, I asked myself, are you trusting in your own sound or have you traded that sound to appease and satisfy approval? As I mused, I considered, every single person that has ever been born on the earth is completely unique from every other person, despite many similarities. We have been formed by countless variables, colliding in a certain way to produce the singularly unique soul we find ourselves to be. As such, every single one of us has a unique sound, a voice that is our own. The question isn’t how can we change that voice. The question is how can we get back to it? The world does a very thorough job of forcing us into compliance. When we conform, we are rewarded. The reward being public approval. The critics critique less and less. The endless judgment from people embroiled in judgment for themselves slows just a bit. But, in the process we are effectively silenced. We are not free to be exactly who God called us to be. Instead we become a watered down version of ourselves. “What if they don’t like this?” “What will they say about that?” Your voice, your sound does not require their approval. It only requires your approval. And, you approve of it by honoring it. We are all a little weird inside. We have quirks and odd spots and incongruences that show up when we stop performing. Look, you billion variables deep, beautiful creature, no one is quite like you anywhere else. You are sort of a miracle. You just have to learn to accept yourself, all of yourself. You do not need to mold into the masses. You were made to stand out. You shine best when you are being you, doing you, and oh my God, enjoying you. Stop conforming and be the authentic you. Trust your sound.

Boy, it’s hard work being an approval seeker. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to fit into everyone else’s idea of who you should be? Everyone knows exactly what you need to be okay, though they are not okay either. Yet, on you drag earning self value according to the judgments of the people. You are going to be okay as long as they approve. But, Lord help you if they don’t approve. The problem with this losing inspired game is that you cannot gain approval of self by any other source than yourself. Instead of competing in the conformity battle, desperate for approval and validation that you are okay, you must engage in a different fight. The fight is for yourself. You have no other self. You have to get all of your parts put back together again by welcoming them all back. Then learn to trust yourself again. There was a time when you trusted yourself and heard that voice quite clearly. There was a time when you did not second guess yourself from here to breakfast. There was a time when you were very clear about what you liked and equally as clear concerning your aversions. You never felt the need to temper yourself and scold yourself and check yourself and examine yourself back then. You trusted yourself with far less life experience and far less knowledge about how things work. I think it goes without saying that any sound trust in yourself would have to be rooted in trust for God. I’m not preaching self-sufficiency in any sense. I’m talking about becoming an integrated whole. Solid instead of poked full of holes. I’m talking about loving yourself for who you are, all of who you are or were or might be. What would be a sane reason to do otherwise? Bring out the real you again. The one who knows their sound.

So many folks obtain their value from external factors like where they live, work and go on vacation. For others they gain their value from what they were able to achieve. But, to save time, none of those external measures actually determine value. Your value is the value that God gave you when He formed, made and created you. You have inherent value and no one can take that from you unless you give it to them and you give it to them by allowing their opinions to matter more than your own. You trade away your value cheap by being dependent upon their approval. You devalue who God called you to be by even considering the need for their approval at all. You don’t need people’s approval to be okay and you don’t need permission to follow your own voice. Trust God, trust yourself and make a move. You may surprise a few folks and most certainly you will cause some to feel angry. Love people, but let them live their own lives. You have to do your own life. What completely unique discovery awaits completely unique you? What special things has God prepared for you to help you trust your voice? Never let other people influence your value. Instead bless them with your value that is real. Bless them with the true you. You know that voice. Return to it. Trust your sound.

Just some good thoughts…