To capture the mandate of moving forward you must say ‘yes.’ When you do, you enter the mystery of God. After your ‘yes,’ your life won’t be the same – you are now on the road to a newness of Spirit, on the road to your heart’s true desire. This ‘yes’ is not the product of rational thought decision made by careful risk analysis and choice metrics. The ‘yes’ is from the deepest knowing part of you, the intuitive place and residence of the Holy Spirit in you. The ‘yes’ is not profit-driven or self-driven or even world-driven… it is grace-drive; it is a ‘yes’ from the center of you. Strangely, while it is a ‘yes’ that is your own heart’s desire – the ‘yes’ is one of obedience to your higher calling. With this ‘yes’ you are surrendering to God’s call in you.
You accept your role in God’s plan as you move to ‘yes.’ The ‘yes’ opens the channels of grace that now flow freely into your spiritual reservoir of love, the chest of hope and trust, and all your spiritual strengths within you. Your ‘yes’ moves you to new freedom, a relief as the shackles of former “shoulds” fall away. Yet, this ‘yes’ isn’t easy, and it can’t be lukewarm for it to be a ‘yes’ of significance, it needs to be a total and complete ‘yes’ with nothing held back. Oh, you certainly can’t be foolhardy, you can’t be stupid; you still need to meet all your obligations and determine these needs and risk the best when you give your total ‘yes.’
Paradoxically your total ‘yes’ requires many ‘no’s.’ You say ‘no’ to a pastime of pleasure seeking and passivity that some cancer survivors see as an entitlement. You say ‘no’ to the lures of the world and take on the rugged cross you’re called to carry… an entirely new discipline of heart and mind.
You are all ever-forming and reforming souls of fortune that seek your centerpoint of Significance. While you seek this most noble part of you – this centerpoint of soul, the ‘Hound of Heaven’ is likewise seeking you, as Francis Thompson reminded us in his book by the same name. Oh, the sweet centerpoint of life, that fulcrum of spiritual equilibrium, the clear call of God to whom you are inextricably drawn; how this call moves your soul.
You hear it in the depths of the night when you awake with the question, “Is this all there is? There must be more!” You hear it in ordinary times and common places, driving, playing, walking, conversing, thinking, but most clearly when you simply sit in silence. There must be a power that releases me, that animates me; a power that emancipates me from the ache of feeling disconnected from my own ‘trueness.’ You’re through being just ‘nice.’ You want to be real… or at least ‘realer’ and truer than you’ve been. You want to divest yourself of anything fraudulent, remove any hint of being an imposter that may lurk around your soul; you want freedom to be significantly authentic… the genuine ‘you.’ Simply put, you seek Significance.
(Taken from my book, Seeking Significance: How to Discover New Self-Direction and New Life-Purpose Beyond Your (Unwanted) Life Transition
Until next time, stay light and be bright in Christ,
Richard P. Johnson, PhD