Do You…

Human beings reportedly share over 99% of the same DNA as all other human beings. Yet in the remaining less than one percent remains all of the differences that make every person on earth unique. There is literally no other person that is identical to you. But, instead of celebrating their differences and distinctiveness people are spending much of their lives trying to be someone else. Whenever you are not true to who you are, your likes and dislikes, your feelings, your tastes and your aversions you are cheating yourself from the person you were designed to be. I challenge you to find one thing in nature that is identical to another thing. God loves variety. Whenever you are not being your true self you end up as a performer exhausting yourself trying to be someone else. The fake smile, the feigned agreement, the getting along just to get along usually takes more from you than it provides. Who or what has convinced us that we need to be someone else instead of embracing just exactly who we are? Why concern ourselves so much with comparisons and competition? Maybe the real you, the one you’ve been hiding is wonderful just as he is without the endless need for modifications and self censure. If you really want to find your own personal happiness in this very short run through, you need to “do you” the authentic and real you.

Lately I have found myself on a devoted quest for understanding. I suppose you reach a certain age where all of your shenanigans run out and you realize there is so much more to learn if you are willing to seek it. This understanding comes from God, the very source and essence of life. The more I seek for understanding the more I realize that there’s a perpetual voice in our heads seeking to find fault in everything that we do. This voice called the judge or the accuser is on a mission to take away our enjoyment of life. It does so by talking you into certain narratives about yourself. Some of these false narratives have been playing for so long that you no longer even recognize them. These thoughts masquerading as your own, want you to believe that you cannot trust your own ideas. They pick apart your self confidence little by indiscernible little until you get to the place where you are loathe to believe that what you think is true is actually true and cause you to opt for another’s opinion. The message is to fall in line and do not question. Go down the same crappy path the masses are on and do your best from there. Crush all aspects of your unique abilities and conform yourself to everyone else. Now, if that was true, why bother to make you unique in the first place? I’m sure God could have created a series of robots all wanting the same things and speaking the same words. But, there is only one you. There is no one exactly like you on the earth. Maybe your quirks and your oddities add to the spice of your life. Maybe there is one thing that fulfills you and one thing that fulfills me. How could we ever find that fulfillment wasting away our lives trying to be someone else? It is our variety and uniqueness that the world needs. There is a taste only you can appeal to and how can you be appealing unless you “do you?”

Similarly, the judge takes away your enjoyment of life by seeking to censure and limit everything you like to do. You can get to the place where all things are wrong, all things will lead to trouble, all things are going to get you. This is the familiar voice of religion that drives your focus inward and seeks to make you doubt yourself. What, you do not have any control over your own life and cannot determine when something is getting out of hand? Can you not modify and adjust yourself as needed? This false judge is not speaking for God who wants you to freely enjoy all things. To this I say, do what the hell you want to do and make adjustments when they become apparent. Trying to live amidst the controlling voice of perpetual correction does not add to your life, it steals it away. A child living within the confines of continual correction never grows and never experiences life. You have molded little him or little her to be afraid of things and in so doing have stifled their individuality and ability to contribute to the world. If you want life you have to live life. You have to learn to silence that voice and just live. Everything else is just fear sucking away your existence. God loves you and I unconditionally, without conditions. All those damnable conditions and onerous rules do not come from God. There can never be perfection in your imperfect flesh. Why not live your life exactly as you want to complete with mistakes, errors, foibles and your own humanity? Why not learn to discern exactly what you do like and limit and modify what you do not like? Why drag about with this burden of a false existence constantly conforming yourself to every other person’s opinion concerning what you ought to do? If you are wrong or when you are wrong, it will become apparent rather quickly and you will have gained valuable insight. If you never take the chance to “do you” you will never know otherwise.

I often muse that God likes me to be exactly who I am in full acceptance of me. That guy is a lot more fun and interesting than the converse version. Yet I also fall prey to that false voice checking me at every turn. Telling me I am wrong and ever threatening some dire consequence for my actions. The judge closes all the doors and eliminates all of the options. Soon we find ourselves unhappy and depressed drowning in our own negative mire. Yet are we so wrong? Is it even possible that all of our choices are evil? Maybe just maybe we aren’t near as bad as we think. Maybe God looks on our hearts? Maybe God wants us to experience our lives and come to the right conclusions with His guiding hand, tender mercies and ever present foresight. Each of us has something unique that we can offer and there is no one else that can offer it. Yet we cannot offer it if we spend our lives dressed up as someone else. Everyone loves the authentic soul even if they are rude and obnoxious. We don’t like their abrasiveness but we can always admire their authenticity. They are the ones that speak up when everyone else is silent. They are the people who say what they like and what they don’t like even if it brings discomfort to the room. They don’t go along to get along, they offer themselves like it or not. Somewhere along the line, right or wrong, they have decided to honor their own opinions and stand behind them with boldness. They are real people who have decided it is better to “do you” than to try to do anyone else.

Deep inside we know what we want and what we don’t want. We know what thrills our hearts and what causes us difficulty and pain and when we learn better we choose better. We get a sense of what is unique about us and instead of hiding it we embrace it. Sure someone might think it’s weird, but they aren’t living in our skin. Once we learn to challenge those wrong thoughts coming from the judge, the limiter, the defrauder, we can finally begin to live choosing a life we actually enjoy without fear of punishment or retribution. We have one very short experience of life in this giant playground of experimentation God has given us. Why not get out there and take a risk? Why not learn to trust that true voice within each of us and find what we have been missing? Why not break free from the shackles of conformity and do what you love? Why not take a chance on the real you and shine brightly? You just might find a place that only you can occupy and in so doing bring love and joy to the world and to yourself. Oh my friends, “do you!”

Just some good thoughts…