Do You Like What You See

I am fortunate in that my writing is inspired. Note that I did not necessarily say that my writing is inspiring, but rather I am suggesting that what I write on a typical day is inspired by the words of others or the things I observe. This post was inspired by my younger brother as I had a chance to listen to a talk he gave recently.

My brother is a Teaching Pastor at a large church in Cincinnati. What he now calls talks we would have referred to as preaching when we were growing up. Yet, having listened to many of my brother's talks, I would be very hard pressed to actually call it preaching as that is not what he does (and I for one am so grateful about that). My brother's talks certainly have a biblical message and are designed to help us to improve our life and our living from an eternal perspective. It is so opposed to the literal shouting we grew up with as the preacher would in essence try to shout, scream or sing you into being convinced about whatever they were speaking about at the time. My brother uses a primarily calm voice, well articulated ideas and a flow that one can easily follow. Last week he was speaking about a biblical story of a lame man who sat by a pool for over 30 years hoping to be healed of his affliction. As the story unfolds the man becomes hopeful upon seeing Jesus that he will be healed. Instead of miraculously healing the man Jesus ask him an important question. The question was "Do you want to be healed?"

The analogy my brother drew was that this man had the power all along to heal his own affliction. Put another way the worst thing that could have been done for this man would have been to heal him as had he been healed he never would have been aware of his own power. This man would have simply remained in his own way blocking himself from the very thing he said that he wanted (which was to get in the pool and be healed).

I was inspired by my brother's talk as I thought of how often it is that we in effect block our ability to get better. Whether that means getting past self doubt, fear, or even many physical ailments we experience. We have the power to make changes in our lives just as did the man by the pool but rather than make changes we just sit beside the pool waiting for someone else to take us in. We make excuses for years about why we can not get the thing we want but never hold ourselves accountable.

There is a line in one of my favorite Mary J. Blige songs which goes "I like what I see when I'm looking at me as I'm walking past the mirror" (inspired once again). As I thought about this I wondered how many people would say that. So many people are unhappy with what they see looking back at them yet those same people would not put in the effort to change what they see. For some it might be as simple as loving themselves more so that they do appreciate who and what they are. For others it might require the hard work of making tough life changes so that they can see something different. In both cases the only thing that is keeping them from seeing something they like is they themselves. Yet, like the man at the pool they just make excuses.
John Wooden, the former Basketball coach of the UCLA Bruins was famous for saying "the worst thing we can do for those we love are the things that they should and could do for themselves.". I quote this often as a reminder that we should help people to get out of their own way by commanding that they do more for themselves.

As I prepared for a trip this morning I walked past my full length mirror many times. I did not see a world class athlete, a business mogul, a rock star or even a very young man. What I saw was the father, consultant, partner, son and friend that I am. I saw a guy that works hard almost every day at getting better. I like that guy and I am glad that I got out of his way many years ago. Now I am recommending that you get out of your way. You already have all that you need to do whatever you need or want to do. Start doing it right now.