How many times have you kept quiet?  How many times have you not done something you really wanted to do?  How many times have you held back in fear it might be “too much?”

 

I can’t shake this feeling that so many of us are prisoners confined to shackles of our own making.  In its simplest form, it’s fear. It’s fear that keeps us quiet. It’s fear that keeps us from doing things we feel a burning to do.  It’s fear that holds us back thinking we might be “too much” or “not enough.”

 

Maybe I feel it so much because I see it in my own life right now so I feel the need to call it out both for my own accountability as well as for you.  I feel the need to call out this fear that might be binding some of you. We have spent so long listening to our doubts, fears, and disappointments telling us that we are anything but the greatness we were created as.  I believe that the desire to be great is God-given, hard-wired into our DNA. Wanting to do great and be great is nothing to be ashamed of and yet so often we are. Maybe it’s because we don’t want to be seen as too ambitious or “full of ourselves.”  Maybe people we love and/or admire are constantly telling us to “stay humble.”

 

Humble is isn’t thinking little of yourself.  That is low self-esteem. Being humble is not flaunting your greatness and trampling over other people’s hearts and spirits on your “look at me” parade.  I believe we can own our greatness and stay humble. Jesus did it. He was fully God yet served the people he came in contact with. He was confident in who He was but never flaunted His power.  He loved well. He served well. He showed humility by loving and serving while being confident in who He was.

 

What if we walked in the greatness we were created to be?  What would happen if we threw off our shackles of shame and false humility?  What if we believed that other people’s opinions have no weight in the reality of who we are?  What if we stopped being afraid of being ourselves?